Ghosts In New York City
by KadiCriss
Summary: When Chuck&Co take a vacation and go to NYC, they expected everything except meeting a guy who was supposte to be dead for years. canon pairings. Rated T because I'm paranoid. Please leave reviews, guys!
1. Prologue

** Disclaimer : I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters. If I did, it would had never ended. It belongs to NBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and tot USA NETWORKS.**

**This fanfic takes place during season 3 of Chuck and the season 2 of WC.**

* * *

**In Buymore's basement, Burbank, 2011.**

Chuck and Sarah were in the Castle, both working on their computers. Well, they weren't working: they were adjusting their wedding last details. The blonde spy sighed and closed her laptop. Alerted by the noise, Chuck raised his eyes for a few seconds and asked:

"All done?"

"Almost." she replied, smiling at her soon-to-be husband "There's not much left to do, though: I have the perfect fiancé, the perfect dress, three amazing bridemaids and the flower I chose are magnificent!" I booked us an appointemment, tomorrow afternoon."

"What for?" he asked, intrigued.

"We've been talking about it several times, Chuck. Don't tell me you forgot?"

The tall brunette closed his eyes and bit his bottom lip. Sarah sighed and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair who was falling freely on her shoulders. Chuck opened his eyes and muttered:

"I'm so sorry, babe. I had a lot on my mind lately."

The blonde woman smiled and went to sat on the nerd's laps. The young man wrapped an arm around his arms and kissed her cheek while she was unconsciously playing with his tie. She asked:

"What's troubling you?"

"It's.. nothing. Really! Don't worry about it."

"Chuck.." she insisted.

He sighed and said:

"During the last hour, while you've been organizing our wedding perfectly, I've been writing and re-writing persons who have all the qualites required to be my bestman."

"And you don't know who to choose?" Sarah proposed.

"It's not just that" he replied "I've re-writed like.. a million times and I always have the same four names who popped out."

"Which are?"

"Well: Morgan, obviously-"

"Obviously" Sarah muttered.

"Awesome" he continued "and Casey."

"I thought there were four of them" his fiancée noticed, confused "You only told three names."

"I don't think the fourth one would be able to make it."

"Why? Who is it?"

"Bryce" he blurted out.

Sarah's face went blank as Chuck cleared his throat a few times to hide the fact that he was moved just by saying the name of his dead best friend. When they were in college, they had talked about it: if Bryce ever got married (not that he could believe that would be one day) Chuck would be his bestman and otherwise. But now that he wasn't here anymore, he couldn't count on me. He let out a long breath, that he didn't know he was holding, and said:

"You know what? Forget about it! Forget I ever mentionned Bryce."

"Chuck-"

"Honey, it's okay, I'm fine. Thrust me, I am. So what kind of magnificent flowers did you order?"

The blonde spy sighed. She knew him. She was engaged to him, for fucking god's sake! He was obviously avoiding the subject. But she played along not wanting to start a fight. As she was going to reply, Casey and Morgan, followed by Ellie, Captain Awesome and Alex, entered the Castle. All of them, except for Casey who was too busy doing something else, were grinning like idiots. Chuck raised an eyebrow and asked, suspicious:

"What's going on?"

"Why must there be a reason for us to come and see you, guys?" Ellie innoncently answered.

"Well, dear sis', your creeepy grins tell me enough and you wouldn't be all in here if something really important wasn't happening. So what is it?"

Without looking up from his work, Casey announced:

"Ellie convinced Beckman to give all of us a week without missions."

"Seriously?" Sarah asked, surprised "How so?"

"Well" Alex started "Since you and Chuck are getting married in a few days, we convinced her that you needed to rest, away from baddies."

"How awesome is that?" Devon said.

"It is awesome" Sarah agreed, looking to Chuck "Don't you think?"

"It is! It really is!" Chuck replied "Thanks, guys, we really appreciate the gesture."

"Wait, that's not all" Ellie intervened "We also convinced the Buymore manager, Mr Morgan Grimes, to give you holidays!"

"That's nothing, really. Anything for my best friend" Morgan shyly replied.

'Anything for my best friend..' Those words brought Chuck way back in his past

_****FLASH-BACK****_

**STANDFORD UNIVERSITY, 2003.**

_Chuck was playing on his computer when Bryce abruptly opened their dorm's door and screamed:_

_"CHUCKYY BABY: YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE ME!"_

_Chuck jumped at the sudden apparition of his roommate, his eyes wide opened. He shouted:_

_"God, Bryce: are you trying to kill me?! I nearly had a heart attark."_

_"Well, that would've been a pity!" he snorted._

_"Are you drunk again? Chuck sighed, closing his laptop._

_Bryce jumped on the bed next to him, crossed his legs and replied:_

_"Not this time, my friend: I'm completely sober and before you asked, sound of mind. But I've got two things here, in my pocket that going to make you lose your mind. Litteraly."_

_Anxious but yet, excited, Chuck frowned his eyebrows and straightened in his chair. Bryce wasn't the type of person to be so bubbly nor excited so early in the morning. Well, unless he was drunk. The nerd put his laptop on his bed, crossed his arms and asked:_

_"What is it?"_

_Still smiling like a maniac, he raised from the bed, took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Chuck. He eyed suspiciously the envelope before taking it and opening it. His eyes widened when he discovered the content of the envelope. He looked up at his best friend and stuttered:_

_"I-is this what I think it is?"_

_"Yep! Two tickets and passes to go to Comic-Con, in L.A!"_

_He let out a small laugh, still not realizing what was happening. Still dumbfounded, he asked:_

_"How did you get them? I've been trying for months to get some but they were all sold out."_

_"Turned out I bought the last two." He replied, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Do you like it?"_

_"Are you kidding?! That's the best birthday's present ever." He shouted, jumping from his chair to hug Bryce._

_The young man laughed and patted Chuck's back. When he let go of him, he said:_

_"Anything for my best friend."_

**_**BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY**_**

"Chuck?" Sarah asked, gently shaking his shoulder.

"Huh? the tall brunette said, breaking out of his daydream. He looked around to see all of his friends' eyes on him. He blinked a few times, frowning his eyebrows "Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. What did you say?"

"Ellie and Awesome got all of us plane tickets to New York!" Sarah announced, excited. Chuck softly grinned at the sight of his fiancée. Sarah was always so cold, so distant and reserved. He coulnd't believe that the woman next to him, who was acting like a kid in a toy's store, was also a CIA agent, and coldblood killer.

"Wait" Chuck intervened, realizing something "You bought plane tickets for all of us?"

"Yes. Why, what's the problem?" His sister asked, confused.

"Ellie" the nerd insisted "A plane ticket is expensive, how did you manage to buy seven?"

"I'm a doctor, remember? So is Devon. We win a lot of money"

"So does being the only human Intersect in the world still alive" Chuck protested. "We coud've taken care of this."

"It wouldn't have been a surprise if you did, Chuck" Ellie fought back.

"El', I-"

"Chuck!" she interrupted him, tired of fighting with her younger brother "Just take it as a wedding gift."

"You already gave us three wedding gifts,-"

"Please." she insited, taking both of his hands in hers.

Chuck sighed in defeat, then nodded, groaning:

"Fine"

Ellie enthusiastically clapped in her hands, jumping up and down like a litte girl. Chuck chuckled and muttered:

"Looks like we're going to New York."

* * *

**So what did you think of this prologue? Good? Bad? Please leave a review to tell me what you thought about it (even if you thought that it really sucked, I don't care : you can still leave a review, telling me about how much you hate it)**

**Till next time,**

**KadiCriss.**


	2. Shit just got real

**A/N 2 : Oh my godness, you guys are awesome ! Almost 10 reviews for a chapter, 10 followers and 2 favorites and 120 views on this fanfic : you can give yourselves a round of applause ! :D I can officialy die happy!**

**I have a lot of people to thanks so here we go ! **

**Thanks to Alexis Flare and eveningfaerie for adding GINYC in their favourites!  
**

**Thanks to 21JumpStreetMcQuaids, Alexis Flare(again),HP4eva121995, Jlynng96,KeJae, Lady Bird5, eveningfaerie(again :P), iimiodarhab, kilian07 and softball34 for following this story you guys are all kind of awesomeness :)  
**

**And of course, thanks a millionth time for the reviews (which I enjoyed reading. A lot). Since you took time to review this crossover, I took to answer to you:**

**Kaya : **thx a lot ! And don't worry, I won't keep you waiting too long for next chapter (which is almost finished) and I hope that you'll like this chapter! :)

**Guest :** Thank you ! Hope you'll enjoy this one!

**Lilly :** Thank you, and I don't like fanfictions where you have to wait a month for an update either, so I hope I'll have the time to update at least once a week. Enjoy and thanks again!

**BecStar94: **Thx you and I hope you're going to like this chapter because- Oops, speaking too much. You'll see, dear ;)

**Jlynng96:** Thanks for the review! And took a breath, dear : I won't stop this story, I love it so far, so there's no reason for me to abandon it, so breathe ;)

**Guest**: Thanks. Hope you'll like this one!

**21JumpStreetMcQuaids**: Here you go, hope you'll enjoy your reading! Thanks for the review 3

**kilian07**: Merci beaucoup pr le commentaire et j'espère que t'aimerais ce chapitre, qu'il sera a la hauteur ! :D

**Disclaimer : I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters.. It belongs to****NBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and tot USA NETWORKS.**

* * *

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR SECTION, NEW YORK**

**1.30 PM.**

The ex-conman walked into Peter's office, where the older man was eagrily taping on his computer. He took off his fedora's hat and threw it on his desk. He sat in front of Peter, crossing his legs and waiting patiently. Well, Neal Caffrey had a different definition of the word 'patience'. He started taping his fingers against the arm chair. Annoyed by the noise, Peter's head snapped and the older man gritted between his teeth:

"What the hell do you want, Caffrey?"

"And that" Neal said, snapping his fingers "is exactly the reason why I'm here."

"Which is?" he asked, returning to his work.

"You work way too hard, Pete. You drink cups and cups of coffee and you barely eat anymore"

"Well, someone has to do the job." he muttered, not looking at his friend.

"Even if it's turning you into a massive asshole?"

Peter's fingers stopped typing and his eyes met the blue ones of Neal. He cocked an eyebrow and said:

"You must be very stupid or bored to insult a guy who's armed."

"See? That's what I'm talking about: you've been out of your game lately. I mean, come on: you just threatened to shoot me!"

"Just because I never said it out loud doesn't mean that I haven't thought about it.." He muttered

"I'm going to ignore this last comment and blame your meanness on the lack of sleep and the excess of caffeine." he retorted, putting his hat back on his head.

As Peter rolled his eyes, the ex-conman raised from his chair and exited the office. Peter grunted, took his jacket and keys and exited the office, shouting::

"Caffrey, wait!"

Neal smirked before turning around to face his friend and asking in an innocent tone:

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. I didn't mean to. I guess you're right, maybe I'm overworked and I may or not start acting like a massive asshole toward you and the other."

"That's for sure" he snorted, but stopped when Peter gave him a hard look. He cleared his throat and muttered "Sorry."

"I guess I really need some time out of this office, I need some fresh air! Here, how about I invit you and the rest of the team for lunch?"

"I was hoping you'd say that, buddy" Neal said, patting Peter's shoulder. " I've already made a reservation for 6 persons at Ricardo's under your name : I invited Elizabeth, figured she'd like to tag along. You like Italian food right? Great." he said, leaving the building before he could replied something.

Still dumbfounded by the audacity of his consultant, Peter stayed frozen during a few minutes. When he snapped out of it, he groaned, put his jacket on and gritted through his teeth:

"I'm going to kill him."

**.**

**TIMES SQUARE, 2.00 PM**

The gang had arrived to New York the day before. Surprisingly, Sarah was the most excited about this trip. Chuck teased her by reminding her that she'd already went to New York for severals missions. His fiancée and glared at him and retorted that it wasn't the same thing at all. After a good night of sleep, she dragged her friends with her for a morning of shopping and visits.

Exiting of a Starbucks, Ellie and Chuck were walking side by side, their arms entwined, talking casually about nothing and everything. And oddly, it felt kinda nice : not worrying about what the next mission could be, just being serene while laughing with his sister. In front of them were Sarah and Alex, carrying multiple shopping bags and chatting like two teenagers and behind them were Awesome, Morgan anc Casey. Chuck frowned his eyebrows and said, looking at his fiancée:

"It's so weird, seeing her being so.. human."

"What do you mean be that?" Ellie asked, also frowning.

"Acting like a woman instead of being the coldblood killer she was trained to be, laughing with her friends, not checking her phone all thirty seconds to see if Beckman assigned us a new mission." he explained

"I think I like this _Sarah_ better" she sighed "Not that I don't generally like her : I _love_ her! She just seexms so happy right now.."

"Yes, she does" he agreed, smiling as he heard the blond's angelic laugh.

Ellie rested her hand on her brother's shoulder and Chuck unconsciously kissed the top of her head. She closed her eyes at the touch of his lips and let out a big breath, a huge grin on her face. She opened her eyes and asked:

"Isn't this nice? No missions, no bad guys, just you and your friends, enjoying a normal day.

He chuckled and as he was about to nod and replied 'Yes, it is.', something caught inside on the opposite side of the road. He stopped walking and tilted his hand to the side in confusion. Ellie also stopped and asked:

"Chuck, what's wrong?"

Igoring her, his eyes widened when he recognized the person laughing with other persons. He whispered:

"Bryce.."

.

**MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE ROAD**

Neal, Diana and Clinton exited the restaurant, followed by Elizabeth and Peter. Walking hand in hand, Peter said:

"Well, Neal" When he heard his name, the blue eyed man turned toward his friend "I must say: this has to be the only good idea you had since months."

"Eh!" Neal protested, making Diana and Jones chuckle. Elizabeth playfully punched her husband's shoulder. He shrugged and said, in a innocent tone:

"What?

"Don't be a jerk: it was nice of Neal to invit us, show a litte respect."

"Thanks, El'!" the ex-conman said, wrapping an arm around the small brunette, a smirk on his face.

"Considering_ I_ paid for_ all of us,_ it isn't really what I called an invitation.. But anyway, thanks Neal." he retorted with sarcasm.

Neal ignored his tone and smiled at him, saying:

"My pleasure. Now, if you want to, you can go-"

"Caffrey" Jones interrupted him by tapping his shoulder. The young blue eyed man turned to his friend and cocked a questionnal eyebrow. Jones pointed to a man on the other side of the road and muttered "This guy have been staring at you for a few minutes, now. Do you know him?"

Intrigued, Neal turned to the direction Jones pointed to. That's when he saw him. The guy he have been running from for 2 years now. His eyes started to widen slightly and he frowned. His change of behavior and posture didn't go unnoticed by Peter. The older man frowned his eyebrows, put a hand on Neal's shoulder and asked:

"Hey, you okay?"

"_No.._" He muttered. His reply wasn't meant to Peter, nor to the question had asked him earlier. It was more of 'It can't be.'

**_**FLASH-BACK**_**

**Standford University, 1999.**

_Charles was already in his room, unpacking his stuff, ready to start his first year of college. Saying he was excited was an understatement : the young man was extasique! The one thing he was a little nervous for, was to meet his roommate, the guy he will have to spend the all year with. He hoped they'd get along. Since Charles was kind of what people called a geeky nerd, his only friends in highschool were mostly 'computer freaks' as would have said one of his tormentors. And let's not forget about Morgan! But Charles didn't considered Morgan as a friend, he considered him as a long lost not bloodrelated brother._

_As the nerd was lost in his thought, he didn't notice the guy, carrying a large box with books on it, entering the room until one of the books fell and the said man swored under his breath:_

_"Shit.."_

_Charles chuckled and proposed, benting down to pick it up:_

_"Here, let me help."_

_ The other man thanked him with a smile. As Charles handed him his book, he noticed something and coudn't help but ask:_

_"You're studying computer science?"_

_"Hum, yes. My uncle is a software enginner, so I kinda fell in it when I was little, and I don't know, I've got a thing for computers."_

_"So do I" Charles retorted, happy that he had at least two points in commun, with his new roommate. "I mean my father also a software enginner and I took that class."_

_"That's awesome!" he said, a huge grin on his face. He put his boxes on the floor "At least, I'd know one of the guys in my class. The name's Larkin" he said, stretching out a hand "Bryce Larkin."_

_"Charles Bartowski." he replied, shaking his hand "I can see that you're a James Bond fan._

_"Sue me, Charles" he teased "I admit it : it's my guilty pleasure."_

_"There's no need to feel guilty about it, I've watched_ 'Tomorrow never dies'_ like a hundred times."_

_"It's my favourite!" Bryce said, excited._

_"Shut up!"_

_"No, seriously, Spottiswoode made an awesome Bond" he retorted._

_"I think I found myself a new best friend." the nerd joked._

_Bryce snorted, and lay on the bed next to him, putting his arms under his neck. He turned to Charles and asked:_

_"Sp, if we're friends, I- Wait, are we? Friends, I mean? Don't answer that, it sounds like something a four year old girl asked to someone else on her first day at kintergarden. We've known each other for minutes."_

_"And I already feel like we're soulmates" Charles teased. Bryce rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at him, which Charles caught, chuckling "Seriously, we're going to be roomies for the rest of the year, so I guess it would be good if we'd get along."_

_"Cool" Bryce replied, sitting up "So I''ve got this sort of thing : when I was little, I moved a lot, so each time I'd arrived in new place and made a first friend, I'd gave him a nickname. No offense, but I found Charles too formal and too mouthful." _

_"None taken, I'm not fond of my name either, soo. What ideas do you have in mind?"_

_"Hum.. How about Pr Xavier?"_

_"Like I haven't been beaten up enough in my life for being called Charles." he joked._

_"Right" Bryce chuckled "Hum.. C.?_

_"Nah!"_

_"Ok.. Ouh! I've got it: be prepared to be amazed by my awesomeness.. Chuck."_

_The young man tilted his head to the side, considering the name : Chuck. Huh! It did sound cooler. He smiled and nodded:_

_"I like Chuck."_

_"Awesome! Ok, let's do this 'introduction' thing again so you can try your new name." Bryce cleared his throat, stretching out a hand "Hi, I'm Bryce Larkin."_

_"Nice to meet you, Bryce, I'm Chuck Bartowski."_

_"Chuck, huh? Cool name!"_

_Charle-Chuck laughed at the joke and let go of his hand. 'Yep' he thought, smiling 'This is the start of a great friendship.'_

**_**BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY**_**

"Peter to Neal : do you copy?" Peter asked, waving a hand in front of his friend's face.

No reaction. The younger man was ignoring him. Well, ignoring wasn't the exact term: let's say he wasn't adknowledging his presence. He kept staring in front of him. At him. When his blue eyes met the brown gaze of the man, Neal broke out of his reverie and started swearing:

"Shit, shit, shit."

"Neal, what the hell is going on?" Jones asked.

The ex-conman turned to his friend, his mouth open as he was going to retort something. He shot a last look above his shoulder and saw that the brown haired guy had turned his head for a minute. He turned to Peter, closed his eyes, let out a breath and started sprinting the opposite way, ignoring the shouts of his friends and teammates.

**MEANWHILE..**

"What?" Ellie asked again. "What did you mean by that?"

Chuck didn't reply : he was too busy staring at the man in front of him. A man who was supposed to be dead. Behind them Casey, Awesome and Morgan stopped walking. Casey grunted:

"What the hell is wrong with you, Bartowski? Move!"

The young man didn't move of an inch. Sarah turned to her fiancé, concerned. What was happening to him? What was he staring at? She walked toward him and asked softly:

"Chuck? Babe, what's going on? Did you flash on something?"

Chuck turned to the blonde woman and as he was going to retort something, he saw the man he was observing for several minutes getting way, running. He crossed the road and shouted, running:

"Eh!"

"Chuck!" Ellie and Sarah shouted.

The blonde spy and Casey exchanged a quick look before running after him, leaving Morgan, Alex, Awesome and Ellie dumbfounded.

**NEAL'S P.O.V**

The ex-conman was still running, aware that Peter, Diana and Jones were probably chasing after him. Another thing he was aware of : he was out of the radius of his anklet. By now, he probably had half of the cops of New York after him. He ran pass people, thanking god that he was in New York and that the street was always crowded. He ran through the crowd, excusing himself when he had to. He hadn't the courage to look behind him to see if _he_ was following him. A few minutes later, he wasn't in the crowd anymore but in front of a appartement's lot, looking for a place to hide and to catch his breath. Again, luckily for him, he was living in New York. A city with a lots of appartements which had fire escapes. He smirked and started climbing up to the roof of an appartement.

Once a roof, he hid himself behind a cheminy, couphing because of the smoke. He quickly took a look out of his hideout and saw Peter looking around and shouting orders to some cops. He sighed and slowly and quietly went down, always looking behind his shoulder to see if he was still alone. He jumped down on the ground and dusted hilettone, letting out a sigh of reliA dans smiled:

"Well, that went well" he muttered to himself.

His smile quickly vanished when he was tackled on the ground. He let out a wince of pain and raised back on his feet, rubbing his harmed shoulder. He looked up to see who had attack him but his mouth went dry and the only thing he managed to say -well, mutter- was:

"Chuck.."

Too dumbfounded, he didn't the fist of his ex-best friend coming right at his face. The punch took him by surprise and made him fall backward. He closed his eyes, holding back a cry of pain. He touched his nose and almost fainted at the pain. Definitely broken. He jumped back on his feet, walking away from the angry spy and said:

"Wait, I can explain."

"Really?" Chuck gritted between his teeth, throwing an another punch at him.

But Neal was faster : he grabbed his arm and twisted it before hitting him in the stomach with his knee. Chuck fell, holding his stomach in pain. The ex-conman frowned his eyebrows and wondered_ 'When did he became so strong? When did he learn how to fight? Was that gun in his pocket?!' _

Chuck slowly and painfully get back on his feet, ready to fight back. Neal warned, using his nickname:

"Chucky, don't make me hurt you."

He ignored him and threw a stick he found on the ground at him. Neal took the lid of a trashcan and used it as a shield before throwing it at Chuck, who dodged it. Not like dodging balls being thrown at you. He dodged it like Neo dodged bullets in _'The Matrix'._

"How did you-" Neal started, but he interrupted himself when Chuck took the gun out of his pocket and pointed to Neal.

He raised his unharmed arm, not wanting to anger the man even more. He said in a calm voice:

"I thought you hated guns."

"I thought you were dead" Chuck retorted.

"Touché." Neal admitted. "Chuck, please, drop the weapon and listen to me, I-"

"No, you're going to listen to me, Bryce: y-"

He was interrupted by police cars sirens and a tall man in a suit, shouting:

"FBI! Drop the weapon immediatly!"

Neal turned his head and saw Peter, Diana, jones and ten others cops poiting their guns to Chuck. Neal dropped his arm and started:

"Peter, I-"

"You know that guy?" Chuck interrupted him.

"Drop the gun, sir." Jones repeated in a harsh tone.

Chuck glanced a last time at his ex best friend then put his weapon on the ground. Diana and Jones walked toward him, their guns still in their hands. Jones took out handcuffs and wrapped them around Chuck's wrist, ignoring his cries of pain.

Neal walked toward Peter and as he was about to explain hisself, some cop walked toward him, put his arms behind his back and handcuffed him.

"What the hell?!" He shouted, looking at Peter.

"You're out of your radius." Peter explained, shrugging. "Let's go.'

"CHUCK!" Someone shouted.

The spy turned around to see his fiancée, teammate, sister and friends running toward him. Jones stopped her by grabbing her arm and saying:

"Ma'am, back off."

Sarah yanked her arm out of his grip and muttered:

"Back off yourself."

"Eh!" Diana protested "You may be upset but you have not right to talk like that to a federal agent."

"Suits" Casey muttered, getting out his NSA plaque, before handing it to Diana. "She's a CIA agent, so is he." he pointed to Chuck "I'm from the NSA."

"I don't care if you're the President of the United States and she's the First Lady" Peter intervened, walking toward them, dragging Neal behind him, who was benting his head so Sarah and Casey wouldn't recognize him. "Your little friend here just assaulted a FBI agent"

_'Shit just got real.' _Neal/Bryce thought when Sarah and Casey turned to him. Sarah cocked an eyebrow, crossed her arms:

"Chuck wouldn't have attack him without a valuable reason. Maybe _your agent_" she insisted, looking straight at Neal, who was holding his breath "provocked him."

"Neal? Do you have something to say in your defense?" Peter asked.

"Yes, _Neal_?" Chuck asked in a falsy innocent tone "Anything to say?"

Biting his bottom lip, the blue eyed man raised his head, looking right into Sarah's eyes whose jaw had dropped. He smirked and replied:

"I guess I just have a face that screams_ 'Please, shoot me'_. Right, sir?" He turned to Casey, who was dumbfounded.

Peter frowned his eyebrows, confused by what was happenning. Diana cleared her throat and the older man turned to her.

"What do we do, Boss?"

Peter sighed then answered:

"Bring them in."

Neal's smirk dropped as a cop dragged him away, grabbing his harmed shoulder. Jones forced Chuck to enter a car as Ellie and the others were staring at him, powerless. Morgan, confused, walked to Casey and Sarah and asked, his hands in his pockets:

"Wasn't that Bryce?"

Sarah cocked an eyebrow at him while Casey rolled his eyes at him and let out a small grunt before leaving. Sarah was right behind him. She crossed her arms and said:

"We need a car. And guns."

"Glad we're on the page, Walker." Casey replied

She sighed and muttered:

"Looks like holidays are over."

* * *

**A/N 2 : So what did you think? Please, review guys ! **

**I'm going to try to post a chapter a week. I think Sunday is going to become my new 'update' day. **

**KadiCriss :)**


	3. Classified

**A/N** : Thanks you again for the amazing reviews, guys! :) And thanks to Katynka,Seal86, Alek34 and pizzadude124 for following and adding this fanfic in her favourites !

Thanks to Kejae,Kaya, AlexisFlare, Lilly, Alek34, 21JumpStreet, anonymous, kilian07, crazy diva and Jlynng96 for the marvelous reviews ! I replied to a few of them :

**kilian07** :"_**Très bon chapitre, Neal va avoir du boulot pour se sortir de ce pétrin! Petite question : verra-t-on Sara (Ellis, pas Walker) dans cette histoire? Ca pourrait faire encore plus de complications pour lui, une rencontre entre les 2 Sara(h)...**__" _**Translation**_:__** "Great chapter, Neal's going to have all the help he can get to get out of this mess! Question: will we see Sara (Ellis, not Walker) in this fanfic? It would bring Neal even more complications. Maybe an encounter between the two Sara(h)?"**_

Alors, oui ! Sara Ellis sera un des personnages importants de cette histoire, étant la petite amie de Neal/Bryce; et fera sa première apparition dans ce chapitre. Et encore oui, les deux Sara(h) se rencontreront :) Satisfait ? (Translation : Well, yes ! Sara Ellis is one of the most important characters of this fanfic, since she's dating Neal/Bryce and she'll made her first apparition in this chapter. And again, yes, the two Sara(h) will meet :D Satisfied?)

**anonymous :** **_"Please let this be Bryce!Neal because I'm thoroughly sick of the Bryce-Neal wins/lookalike/clones stories no matter how lovely they all are"_**

SO AM I ! Don't worry, this is definitely a Bryce!Neal fanfiction :) and glad you enjoyed it !

**crazy diva :** **_"ooh god i loooooved this chapter soo much! please update soon! you wrote neal also so well..."_**

Thank you so much ! I was afraid I wasn't portraying him good enough, 'cause.. Well, because he's Neal freaking Caffrey, I love him so much and I just hope that he's portrayed at your expectations :) Thanks again : your comment made me grin like a crazy woman, which made my mother looking at me with a confused look on her face! XD

Thanks to Lilly for pointing out my small mistakes and the fact that I had confonded season 3 with season 4! You're right, they do get married in the fourth season!

So this story is taking place in the fourth season of Chuck.

**Enough with the thanks : back to the story ! **

**Disclaimer : I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters.. It belongs toNBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and tot USA NETWORKS.**

* * *

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR DIVISION, NEW YORK.**

**2.35 PM**

Casey and Sarah were sitting in front of the conference where Neal/Bryce and Chuck were locked up, alone, both handcuffed. Sarah was on the phone with Ellie, trying to calm the older woman as Casey was just observing the two ex-best friends who were oddly calm. Beside them were Jones, Diana and Peter. The older man was speaking with his superior who as clueless about the situation as the White Collar team.

Sarah sighed and hung up. Casey turned to his partener and asked:

"Is she okay?"

"She's worried" the blonde replied, passing her fingers through her long hair. "And confused. A lot."

"Huh, so am I!" Casey muttered "If I had a gun, I'd have shot him a third time and make sure he was really dead this time. Ugh, why didn't we take weapons, again?"

"Because we were supposed to be on holidays" Sarah rolled her eyes "No missions means no guns, Casey"

He groaned, bored and annoyed, then turned back to face the larged glassed window of the conference room, where the two men were stil silent.

Suddenly, the door opened and a small redhead woman and two cops entered the room, making both of the men stand up.

**IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM.**

Neal and Chuck were sitting at both ends of the table, so they could faced eachother. Neal had tried to break free of his handcuffs more than once but his harmed shoulder prevented him to move his arm without wanting to throw up at the pain and he really didn't want to break his thumb. A dislocated shoulder and broken nose were enough.

Chuck's eyes were on the floor, not wanting to meet the blue gaze of Bryce.. Or Neal, as they called him here.. Whatever, Neal and Bryce were one and the same!

They stayed in a weird silent during several minutes, until Chuck said:

"I'm sorry."

"For breaking my nose, dislocating my shoulder or just for attacking me without a valuable reason?" he asked in a sarcastic tone

As Chuck was going to retort something, the door opened and the General Diane Beckman entered the room, followed by two cops. Her apparition caused both of the men to stand up. One of the cops walked toward Chuck and removed his handcuffs as the other did the same with Neal and gave him an ice pack. The policemen exited the room, as the two men sat back down, Chuck rubbing his sore wrists, Neal carefully putting the ice on his broken nose.

The General cocked an eyebrow at the ex-conman/CIA agent (Whatever.) and said:

"You should go see a doctor, it looks broken."

"Geez! Thanks Diane : what would I do without?" Neal retorted, sarcasm in his voice.

Even though he couldn't see the nerd's face, Neal could swear he had heard him chuckle. Chuck raised his head, looking at Neal, and said:

"I could ask Ellie to come and take a look at your shoulder."

"That would be cool" Neal replied, surprised by his ex-best friend's proposal "Thanks."

Chuck gave him a short nod, muttering_ 'Sure.' _

The General ignored the interaction between the two men and turned to Chuck, asking:

"Now, agent Bartowski : what the hell _was_ that? Attacking a civil in New York's crowded streets; are you _out of your mind_?!"

Chuck's wide opened eyes were filled of surprise, taken back by his superior's words. Then surprise left his eyes to be replace with anger. He repeated:

"Am _I_ out of my mind? Are you serious, right now?! _You_'re the one out of your mind!

"Watch it, Bartowski.." Beckman warned.

"Chuck, buddy : calm down-" Neal intervened.

"You don't get the right to call me _'buddy'_." He interrupted him, glaring at him, rage dancing in his eyes "You don't even get the right to talk, right now, Bryce!"

"Actually, now, it's Nea-"

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE!" he interrupted again, shouting. He turned back to Beckman, pointing an accusing finger at her "Don't you dare to tell me that I'm out of my mind : you are. You're the one who made me believe that my best friend was dead for the two last years- he fucking died before my eyes, for God's sake! And then as I walked down the streets of New York City with my friends and family, I saw him, standing in front of me. Talking. Laughing. Walking. _Breathing. How the hell do you expect me to react at this?!_"

A long silent fell in the conference's room after Chuck's outburst. Chuck was breathing heavily as Neal was looking at him, concerned. The ex-conman straightned on his chair, restraining a cry of pain when he moved his arm, and started, looking right into Chuck's eyes:

"Please, Chuck, lis-"

"How are you alive, anyway?" he spatted.

Neal sighed, ran a hand over his face and muttered, looking at the floor:

"Long story."

_****FLASH-BACK****_

**NEW YORK, 2009.**

_Bryce's blue eyes snapped up and the young man stared breathing heavily. When he had calm down a little, he tried to sit up but a massive headache prevented him from doing so. He lay back, eyes closed and put his head between his hands, muttering:_

_" 'The hell happened..?!"_

_Then he remembered : Sarah.. Chuck.. Roark_**(1)**_.. The Ring.. The Intersect... The gunfight.. He'd been shot.. He died. _

_He immediatly sat up, ignoring the pain that movement was causing him and brought his hand on his stomach, where the bulletwound was supposed to be. The deadly bulletwound. He slowly rose his t-shirt to find a bandage wrapped around his hips. _

_"The hell?!" he repeated. _

_"I've seen you awake. It was about freaking time, Larkin." A voice suddenly sighed._

_He jumped, taken aback by the sudden apparition of the petite redhead woman next to him. He regained his composure, frowned his eyebrows and asked:_

_"General?"_

_She gave him a small nod and a sad smil in reply, which surprised him even more. He didn't think he had ever seen smile before. He shook his head and sighed:_

_"How long was I asleep?"_

_"Over a month" she replied, raising up from her chair "People stopped hoping that, one day, you'll wake up but I didn't. And I'm glad to see I was right."_

_Bryce gave him a small smirk, which he quickly lost before asking again:_

_"Wait-How am I not dead? Are Chuck and Sarah okay? Where are we? I've been unconscious for a **month** ?__  
_

_"One question at a time, Bryce. The answer to question is classified and you don't need to know anything about that except that you're alive. Second, they more than fine, don't worry. They mourn your death. Third, you'll find out soon enough and finally, yes. Yes, you have. After the Bartowski team was taken out of the Intersect room, agents and doctors rushed in the room to take care of you. Your heart stopped a few times but as you can see, you're still alive."_

_"Why?" he asked "You never got in that much trouble just for an agent."_

_Beckman didn't reply immediatly. She walked toward a table and took a file out of her purse, before throwing it at the agent. She sighed, crossed her arms and replied:_

_"You're not just a agent, Larkin. You're one of the bests agents CIA ever trained, you couldn't afford to lose you."_

_He let out a small snort before taking the file and scanned it. He closed it back, looked at his superior, his eyes filled with confusion and asked:_

_"Who's Neal Caffrey?"_

_****BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY****_

"It's a long story, and? Bryce, snap it out!" Chuck said, waving a handd in front of him.

Neal blinked a few times before looking back at the nerd and shaking his hand. He sighed, put the bag of ice on his harmed shoulder and replied:

"It's classified."

"What? _Seriously?!_" he spatted.

Neal just shrugged. Chuck scoffed before walking toward him, making Neal unconsciously stiffing up in his chair. The young man gritted between his teeth:

"I thought you were dead for the two last years, you've been my best friend for over 10 years, even though you got me kick out of Standford, I still considered you as my best friend. I think that you _owe_ me. Big time. Tell me the thruth.

"I-I can't, I'm sorry."

"Why? Because then, you'll have to kill me?" he joked.

"Exactly, Bartowski" Beckman intervened "Now, I suggested you calm down before _I_ lose my temper. Agent Larkin was been following orders for the last two years and the most important one was not to tell you he was still in the world of the livings."

"Not for long" Chuck muttered, thinking about Casey who probably was as pissed, if not more, as him.

"What you heard is going to stay in this room" Beckman ordered, ignoring the young man's comment "You're not going to tell anyone : not Grimes, not Ellie, not Casey and mostly not Walker."

"Wait, Ellie and Morgan know about you?" Neal asked, confused.

"I won't let you mess up one of our greatest missions just because you're mad at your best friend. Am I clear?"

"But-" Chuck tried to protest.

"_Am I clear_?" she repeated, between gritted teeth.

Chuck groaned, sighed and muttered:

"Crystal, General."

"Good. " she announced before leaving the room.

As Chuck was going to follow her, Neal abruptly rose from his chair, holding his harmed arm and shouted:

"Chuck, wait up!"

The nerd sighed before turning around. Neal put a hand on Chuck's shoulder before saying:

"Please, trust me, I-"

"_Trust you_?" He interrupted Neal. He scoffed "Never again."

**.**

**MEANWHILE..**

While Sarah, Casey, Diana and Jones were observing the intense exchange that was occuring in the conference's room, Peter was conversing with his superior, getting more and more nervous. Matt Lawrence**(2)** was a tall grey haired man and was quite impressive and scary at the same time. You would thought that he's a tyrant, but he wasn't : he was one of the kindest guys Peter had worked with. And that was saying a lot for a federal agent; usually they all were jerks.

The only problem with Peter's boss were that he also had to obey to the orders of people in top of him if he wouldn't want to risk his job.

"Listen, Burke" he sighed, crossing his arms "Things aren't good for Neal. At all. He's been escaping from your surveillance, he got out of his 1-mile radius and got in a _freaking fight_ with another federal agent. I can't defend his case in front of the board, they'll think I'm stupid."

"I know everything seems agaisnt-"

"_Is_, Burke." Lawrence interrupted

"But he isn't the one who started the fight, this 'Chuck' guy did! And I'm sure, he also is the reason Neal ran away." Peter protested.

"Peter, you know that and I know that, I'm just pointing that Neal's case is going to be, if not impossible, very hard to defend.."

"I know" Peter sighed, running a hand over his hair.

The older man, gave him a small smile and patted his shoulder:

"Take care, Peter." he said, before leaving.

Once Lawrence had left, Peter let his hands fall in his hands, restraining himself from screaming in frustation. Not many people were fond of Neal : because of his past, because of his attitude, because of everything that made Neal .. Neal.

"Peter?" A feminine voice interrupted his thoughts.

He raised back his thoughts and saw a auburn haired woman walking toward him, followed by a small guy wearing glasses. He let out a sigh of relief and smiled at her. The woman smiled before hugging him. Peter hugged her back and when he let go of her, the young woman said, a teasing smile on her face :

"You look terrible, Burke."

He let out a small laugh before retorting:

"I have your boyfriend to thanks for it, Sara." he stufed his hands in his pocket then looked over the girl's shoulder, seeing the small bald man. He pursed his lips then gave a small nod "Hey, Mozzie!"

"Suit."

"By the way, what are you two doing here?" He asked, frowning his eyebrows.

"Elizabeth called me" Sara explained, showing the phone in her hand as a proof "She told me that Neal got arrested because he had tried to run away. Then I called Moz' who told me that he wasn't aware of any escape plans. And we're finally here, so..Care to explain what the hell happened out there?"

"I couldn't even if I wanted to : I've no idea what happened." Peter retorted, shaking his head. "Since you're here, I was hoping you could get something out of him."

"Why would you ask her to do that?" Mozzie intervened, causing the two agents to turn their heads to him. "I think I'd be more qualified to make him talk since I'm his best friend."

"_I'_m his best friend" Peter corrected.

"I mean I'm the best friend who he doesn't have to lie to." Mozzie retorted in a teasing voice.

Peter ignored the conman's comment and continued:

"Plus, Sara is his girlfriend and-"

"Oh, right!" he interrupted him, again "She's the one sleeping with him."

Sara's face immediatly flushed red as Peter rolled his eyes at the small man. He was going to retort something when he heard Diana's voice said:

"Boss, they're getting out of the conference's room!"

At those words, all heads, including Sarah's and Casey's turned to see Chuck exiting the room, quickly followed by Neal.

Sarah ran toward her fiancé and wrapped her arms around his neck. For the first time in the last 2 hours, Chuck smiled and hugged her back, burying his nose in her long blonde hair. He let go of her, keeping his hands on her waist as she cupped his face between her hands. Sarah smiled at him and asked:

"You're okay?"

He nodded and replied:

"Now, I am."

Her smile turned into a grin as she raised on her toes and kissed him, causing Casey to grunt and mutter:

"Get a room."

Chuck smiled into the kiss and pulled back. He raised his head to see that Neal/Bryce was talking with a FBI agent and some auburn haired girl. Neal and her seemed kinda close. Then he noticed the way he was looking at her and the way she was looking at him : it was the same way Sarah and him were looking at eachother _'Must be his girlfriend'_ he thought.

Chuck looked around him : except for Casey and Sarah, all of the persons in the room were around Neal/Bryce, genuinely caring for him. The young blue eyed man was asking so differently with them than he ever acted around him and his family. He thought to what happened earlier in the conference room:

_'I won't let you mess up one of our greatest missions'_

Then it hit him : he wasn't Bryce Larkin here, he was Neal Caffrey. A guy with a different attitude, differents friends, a different past, even a different wardrobe! He was a completely different person. He wasn't the young man he met at Standford ten years ago anymore, he didn't know who he was anymore. Well, it looked like he didn't know who he was anymore.

He broke out of his reverie when he felt a soft hand caressing his arm. He turned his head back and his brown eyes met Sarah's blue ones, filled with worry. She asked:

"Are you sure you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, I was, hum.. just thinking." He shot a quick glance at Neal and looked back at his partners "Eh, if I ask you to follow my lead right now without asking questions, would you do it?"'

"What? Why, what-"

"Just answer the question; would you?"

"Hum, I g-guess" Sarah hesitated, crossing her arms "Yes, I would."

"What about you, Casey?"

"Nope, not a chance, Bartowski." he replied immediatly.

"Come on, Casey. I know I messed up several times but please, you just gotta trust me on this, okay?"

The colonel crossed his arms, looked at Sarah then looked back at Chuck before grunting and muttering:

"Fine."

Chuck shot him a small smile before walking toward Neal, Sarah and Casey's glances following him. Casey slowly bent to whisper in the blonde's ear:

"What the hell is he doing?"

"No idea." she replied.

**.**

**MEANWHILE..**

As Neal was going to say to Sarah for the billionth time, he saw Chuck walking toward them from the corner of his eyes. _'What the hell is he doing?'_ he thought. He abruptly turned around. Too abruptly. He let a small cry of pain, putting his hand on his harmed shoulder. Chuck winced and apologised:

"Sorry for that, it looks like it hurt like hell." he turned to Peter and gave him a hesitant smile, stretching a hand out "Hi, I'm Chuck Bartowski."

Peter hesitated before taking the young man's hand and shaking it:

"Agent Peter Burke."

When Peter let go of his hand, Chuck turned to Sara and asked:

"Are you working for the FBI too?"

"Oh, god no!" she exclaimed, getting dark glances from Neal and Peter and a chuckle from Chuck. She took his hand and shook it, introducing herself "Sara Ellis, I'm an insurance investigator."

Her hand still in his, Chuck shot a look at Neal, clearly saying 'Sara? Really?' Neal looked back at him and shrugged. Chuck let go of the woman's small hand and said:

"Nice to meet you, Agent Peter Burke and Insurance Investigator Sara Ellis." Chuck turned to Neal "And we've met before."

Neal gulped and nodded, before replying:

"Yeah. Yes, we did."

"Again, I'm so sorry for your broken nose and dislocated shoulder,Mr Caffrey. I guess I'm stronger than I thought."

_'What on Earth is- Mr Caffrey? 'The hell?!' _Neal thought, surprised by Chuck's new attitude. The spy shot him a look saying _'Follow my lead first, questions later.' _The ex-conman regained his composure and shot him his charming grin.

"It's alright, Agent Bartowski. Mistakes happen."

"Wait" Peter interrupted, confused " _'Mistakes'_?"

"Yes" Chuck said "I've just mistaken him with someone who really looks like him."

"If I may, who was this person?" Sara wondered

"An ex-CIA agent" he replied in a casual tone, stuffing his hands in his pockets "He died two years ago, that's why I was so shocked and afraid to meet him in New York."

"And that couldn't be me since I was in jail until last year." Neal completed.

'_That lovely story doesn't explain why Neal ran away.'_ Peter thought, suspiciously eyeing the two men. He looked at Sara _'She doesn't believe them either' _he noticed. Sara turned around and her eyes met Peter's for a few seconds before she looked back at the two men, smiled and said:

"Well, that explains a lot of things"_ 'Not everything, though'_ she thought.

Chuck smiled back and nodded. He turned to leave but then hit his forehead as if he was remembering something that he forgot earlier. He turned back and said:

"I almost forget! God, I have no manners : have you met my partners-in-crime?" He pointed to Sarah and Casey behind him, gesturing for them to come. 'What now?' Neal thought as he saw his ex-girlfriend/partner and the man who had an obsession with shooting people, especially him. He gulped.

Chuck wrapped his arm around Sarah's shoulder and she put a left hand on his chest, looking up at him, eyes filled with love _'Wait, when did 'this' happened?' _Neal thought, smiling unconsciously. The last time he saw the blonde spy and Chuck, their relationship was a cover but now, it seemed so _real._ Plus, since all of the persons in the room knew they were spies, there were no need for a cover.

When he broke out of his reverie, he heard Sarah introducing herself as Peter and Casey were talking:

"I'm Sarah Walker."

Neal took her delicate left hand in his and shook it:

"Caffrey. Neal Caffrey."

Chuck chuckled and thought that maybe, he hadn't changed that much. Neal let go of Sarah's hand and Sara introduced herself:

"Sara Ellis, nice to meet you."

Neal could swear he heard Casey snorting and that Sarah, like Chuck, was restraining a laugh. Sarah took the auburn haired girl in hers and shook it:

"Sarah Walker, likewise."

As she was going to pull her hand back, Sara didn't let go and asked:

"Is that an engagement ring, I see?"

Sarah smiled and nodded. Neal cocked an eyebrow, and asked (even though he was pretty sure of the answer):

"Who's the lucky one?"

"That would be me." Chuck replied.

"Really?" He insisted, grinning.

"Really." he retorted, taking Sarah's hand in his.

He was still smiling like a madman, but he didn't care : they were_ finally_ getting married. Don't get this wrong, he loved Sarah, but when the first time he saw the two together, he knew that they would end up together, no matter what.

"Congratulations" he said, stretching a hand.

Chuck took it and shook it. When he let go of his hand, Diana walked toward Peter saying:

"Boss, we have some news on the houses' robberies. Here" she said, handing him a file, we just received this."

Peter thanked with a nod and opened the file. On the first page was a photo that caught Chuck's attention 'Oh, god, no..' he thought before his eyes slightly closed and his pupils started moving fast as he saw names and images flashing in front of him :

_Banks robberies.. Deutsche Bank..Federal Reserve Bank Of New York.. Roark Instruments.. Stephen Bartowski..Intersect.. Fulcrum.._

The flashes stopped and Chuck felt like he was going to faint. But he didn't. As Neal and Peter fought about the fact that Neal should be in a hospital instead of helping investating, Sarah was talking with Casey. Chuck, out of breath, fell on the chair behind him and was breathing heavilly. Why did he saw the name of Theodore Roark? Wasn't he suppose to be dead? Why would he start robbing banks? The guy was rich! Chuck ran a hand over his hair and muttered:

"Oh, no.."

Sarah turned to him, tilted her hand to the side and asked:

"Chuck?"

No reply. Just silence, a confused Chuck and a worried Sarah.

"You okay, Agent Bartowski?" Neal asked, also getting worried.

Chuck didn't answered and kept looking in front of him, massaging his temples and still breathing heavily. He buried his head in his hands, tired of seeing the room spinning around him.

"Chuck?" Casey's voice seemed so far away. Everything seemed so far away. He suddenly felt his body going numb. He also felt his body hit the floor when he fell off of his chair "Chuck!"

And finally, he felt blackness falling over him.

* * *

**A/N 2 :** **Sooo, what did you think? I'm not really proud of this ending but I couldn't wait to update :) **

**Review, people!**

**See next Sunday, I hope :D**

**KadiCriss**


	4. Old Friends

**A/N : **** hide from angry readers behind frying pans ** Hum.. sorry ? I know I was suppose to update this story on Sunday but.. a lot of things can happen in a week. So I guess my excuse is that school's almost out therefore, I've got a lot of exams and homeworks.. So, yeah! But anyway I'm back with an all-new chapter and a lot of people to thank :

Thanks to **Em Phantom, Spirock, fireflower297, Amitris,Fanofallthingsdarkandmagical, Ayumu Narumi, ismo23, wolfeschatten, kendog52361, rarasisboomba **and** shinigami02master** for following/favouriting (is that even a real word? Whatever :P) this story :D

Thanks to **crazy diva, Lilly, Kaya, 21JumpStreetMcQuaids, wolfeschatten, AlexisFlare **and** Kejae** for the marvelous reviews, which I took time to reply to:

**crazy diva** : thank you so much (again, grinning like a crazy woman. My mother just compared me to Alice in Wonderland's Cheschire Cat ! XD Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you !)

**Kaya** : Thanks ! Hope that you'll like this chapter !

**Lilly :** Thanks and I think that anyone in Chuck or Sarah or even Casey's situation would have been furious ! This story is taking place in a White Collar/Chuck canon verse, let's just say that I changed some details : I think you'll understand in this chapter why Bryce didn't know anything about Neal Caffrey or Peter Burke before taking Neal Caffrey's identity. About Chuck and Bryce's firts encounter, I wanted to make them have some things in common before even becoming friends, even though they seemed very differents. I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOT PETER'S SUPERIOR NAME ! Thanks for correcting this huge mistake. Oh god, when I wrote it, I passed hours and hours trying to remember his freaking name. Since I didn't, I made one up. Also , I know that Neal has a 2 mile radius : sorry for the typo ^^"

Anyway (wow, long reply!XD), I hope this answered to your questions and interrogations.

**21JumpStreetMcQuaids** : Thanks and I hope that you'll like this chapter :)

**KeJae :** Sorry but it would be too simple if there weren't a few cliffhangers ^^" ! Anyway, thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked it ! Enjoy your reading :)

**Guest** : thank you so much ! You don't how much your review means to me ! :)

**AlexisFlare :** Please don't, here's a new chapter! :) Thx for the review!

**wolfeschatten :** Here you go :D !

Back to the story, now!

**DISCLAIMER : **I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters. If I did, it would had never ended. It belongs to NBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and tot USA NETWORKS.

* * *

**NEW YORK DOWNTOWN HOSPITAL, NEW YORK.**

**6:30 PM.**

Chuck's eyes opened as the young man woke up, breathing heavily. He abruptly sat - thing he immediatly regretted - then lay back, closing his eyes to fight the headache. He could feel a small pain in his right arm. He turned to see a needle stuck in his arm, an IV next to him. He sighed and straightened slowly in his bed.

A small snore attracted his attention to the left side of the bed. Chuck turned his head and could help but smile when he saw Ellie asleep, her mouth slighty opened. He cracked his neck and raised from the bed before kneeling in front of his sister's chair. He softly pushed some brown locks falling on her forehead and tucked them behind her ear, sighing : same old Ellie, always worrying. Always taking care of others. And he wouldn't change her for anything, but he just wished she would stop worrying for everything.

He watched her sleep during a few more minutes, asking himself if he should wake her up or not, doing a pro and con list in his head. **Pro** : she looked so peaceful like this, so innocent, so oblivious to the outside world.** Con :** her all body will be sore when she'll wake up if she stay in that position. He pursed his lips, thinking and finally made a choice. He carefully wrapped her arms around his neck and put an arm around her waist and the other under her knees before carrying her to his bed. He slowly put her head in the pillow and removed her arms from his neck and covered her with the blankets.

Suddenly, he heard a small knock at the door. Chuck turned away from his sister and went to open the door to find Sarah, Casey and Neal/Bryce behind it. Seeing her fiancée up, Sarah immediatly rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him. A little surprised, the nerd still hugged her back, kissing the top of her hand. When he let go of her, Casey awkwardly patted the tall brunette's shoulder, saying:

"Well, that was one hell of first day in New York, wasn't it?"

Chuck nodded, amused by Casey'discomfort. Sarah crossed her arms and said, frowning her eyebrows:

"Shouldn't you be in a bed, right now?"

"I'm fine" he replied, rubbing his eyes "'Just a little tired and dizzy."

"That's why you should be in a bed!" his fiancé retorted a little too loud, causing Chuck to put his hand on her mouth. She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he pointed to Ellie who was breathing quietly in her sleep. Chuck slowly took his hand off of the blonde's mouth, afraid of her reaction. She gave him a dark glare before leaving the room, followed by Casey and Chuck, who quietly closed the door behind him.

Once Chuck was out, Morgan, Alex and Neal rushed to him. The ex-CIA agent had his arm in a sling and his bloody and broken nose had been bandaged. Chuck snorted at the sight and spat:

"You look terrible."

Neal rolled his eyes and retorted in a sarcastic tone:

"Geez, thanks, Chuck! Always a delight to hear you compliment me"

Chuck shook his hand and crossed his arm. Morgan walked to him and asked:

"You sure you okay, buddy? You shouldn't be up."

"Yes, I am; don't worry. And even if I wanted to, my bed is already occupied by Ellie." he replied, getting a few confused looks. He sighed, rubbed his forehead and explained "She fell asleep on the chair next to me but she didn't look comfortable, so I put her in my bed."

"I don't think you're allowed to that" Neal said, frowing his eyebrows.

"I don't think I was talking to you, _Neal._" Chuck retorted in a harsh tone.

Although Chuck covered Neal's back earlier and obeyed the General's orders by lying, he was still mad at the ex-CIA agent. Okay, that's an understatement : he was_ furious. I_ mean, anyone would be in that much rage if your supposed dead best friend was in fact alive and living the life of someone else. As the silence became longer and increasingly uncomfortable, Peter, Diana and Jones walked toward the small group, followed by Beckman and Devon. The tall blonde man cocked an eyebrow and asked, crossing his arms:

"What the hell are you doing up?"

"Awesome, I'm fine, do-" Chuck started to reply, slighlty annoyed by everyone's anxiety.

"You've got a concussion, you shouldn't be wandering those hospitals halls but lying in your bed" Devon cut him, annoyed by his attitude "If your sister finds out that I let you get out of bed, and may God helps me if that ever happens, she'll kill me. You do realize you make me look like a amateur here?"

"Relax, Captain: Ellie'll find out only if either of us tell- Wait, you're my doctor?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"I have relations." Devon answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Awesome!" he chuckled, raising one of his hands

"Right?" Devon said, smiling and hive-fiving Chuck, ignoring the others persons. Casey cleared his throat, having both of Chuck and Devon to look at him. The colonel cocked an eyebrow at them and asked:

"So, doc' : what caused Bartowski to faint earlier?"

"Oh, right!" he said as he had just remember why they were all here. He took the medical file tucked under his armpit, opened it and explained without looking up:

"Apparently, your brain received an excess of informations in a small amount of time, which caused the fainting and a massive headache that's going to follow you for several days."

"Great." The brunette muttered under his breath.

"We did multiples tests to see if there were any others things we should be worried about but we found none."

"Great" he repeated, more joyful "That means I'm fine and I can get out of here."

"I thought we were bro's, Chuck."

"We are and-"

"So, if we are, why did I do to you that deserve death?"

Chuck sighed and closed his eyes. Devon frowned his eyebrows, looked around him and wondered:

"Where's Ellie, by the way?"

"Sleeping in my bed." Chuck answered, rubbing his forehead.

Devon rolled his eyes and said before entering the room:

"Forget what I said about her killing me : when she'll wake up, she'll want your blood."

Chuck opened his eyes and saw Peter and Neal walking toward him. Peter cleared his throat before saying:

"Mr Woodcomb, you-"

"Ever heard of Theodore Roark?" He interrupted.

All heads abruptly turned to him. Peter frowned his eyebrows and asked:

"Pardon me?"

"Theodore Roark, also known as Ted Roark, some crazy billionaire who was the CEO of Roarks Instruments and who worked in collaboration with Stephen Bartowski, supposed dead until now. He was noticed by the authorities when several burglaries and robberies occured in New York. He stole over a million dollar of painting and other artistic things, I really don't understand that part since well, he's a billionaire, why is he stealing stupid art objects? Whatever. He started forgering. Federal agents have been at his trail for a year now and didn't catch me or even locate him one time" Chuck stopped talking when he remembered to breath, then continued "So, ever heard of him?"

Chuck stuffed his hands in his pockets and watched, slighly amused, the confused and amazed faces of the White Collar team. Neal broke the silence by asking, suspicious:

"How do you know that?"

"Classified." Chuck answered in a cold tone, smirking.

"Agent" Jones started, taking a few steps toward the young brunette "If you know anything about this Theodore Roark, you must tell us."

"Why would he do that?" Casey retorted, crossing his arms.

"This is our investigation" Diana replied "We've been tracking for a year, it's one of our most important cases! We owe us to-"

"Woah, woah, woah, I'm going to stop you right there." he interrupted, taking a few steps toward the FBI agent "I don't owe you, anything, hell, I don't even know you! Plus, _w_e" he said, gesturing between Casey and he, then between he and Sarah "aren't that fond of working with suits."

Casey snorted as Chuck faked a smile at Diana, who shot him a death glare before turning to her boss. Peter turned to the General who hadn't move from her position, her arms crossed and her eyes on her team. She let her arms fall to the side and said:

"Agent Burke, I'd like to have a talk with both of our teams, if you don't mind."

"Of course, General." He nodded before turning to Diana, Jones and Caffrey.

"Actually, General" Neal intervened as they all started to walk away "I'd like to talk to Agent Bartowski for a few minutes."

"Sure."

He nodded as a 'thanks' and as the others started walking opposite way, Chuck turned to Neal, crossed his arms on his chest and said, cocking an eyebrow:

"Aren't we suppose to be strangers?"

"How did you really all of this stuff about Roark, earlier?" Neal asked, ignoring his question.

"Told you : it's _classified_" Chuck retorted.

"You had a flash." He affirmed, still ignoring the other man.

"Pardon me?"

"You flashed on something, otherwise you wouldn't know that Roark was alive."

"Didn't need to flash to know that you weren't dead" he muttered.

"Ha!"

"What?"

"You _**did**_ flash! How could you flashed on something if the last Intersect was destroyed?"

Chuck didn't reply, still looking at the man in front of him. Neal's eyes widened in realization. He shouted, pointing to the nerd:

"YOU FUCKING DOWNLOADED IT!"

"No need to shout."

" '_No need to shout?!'_ You're not even denying it!"

"Why would I?" Chuck retorted in a complete neutral tone.

"For Godness' sake, CHUCK!" He calmed himself down a bit and slowly put a hand on Chuck's shoulder, afraid he would shake it off. Surprinsgly, he didn't "There's a reason you wanted _this_" he pointed to his ex-best friend's head "out of your brain. There's a- no, there _are so many reasons_ why I should have destroyed it. It killed people, it nearly killed _you_ : are you stupid or just insane?!"

"Why are you insulting me?"

"I fucking die because of this fucking INTERSECRET!" he shouted, still ignoring Chuck.

The nerd looked at Neal, dumbfounded. He shot him a cold glare, walked closer to Neal and spat:

"Well, apparently, you didn't."

Without waiting for an answer, Chuck turned around and walked away, leaving the young man alone.

_****FLASH-BACK****_

_**NEW YORK, 2009.**_

_"Who is Neal Caffrey?" Bryce asked, confused._

_"Neal George Benett, more commonly known under the name of Neal Caffrey, He is the son of James Benett, a dirty cop. He's also an art thief, conman and a world class forger. He was arrested around 2006, convicted of Bond forgery by federal agent Peter Burke. He was sentenced to a four year prison pain, only to escape four month before his liberation, to go and find his girlfriend."_

_"O..kay, still don't see why any of this have something to do with me." Bryce interrupted, causing the older woman to glare at him. He raised his hands in defense and allowed her to continue her tirade. Beckamn sighed then continued:_

_"His escape occured three months ago, and he caught our attention a month ago."_

_"Why?"_

_"He get killed by Vincent Adler, a famous CEO conned by Nicholas Halden, one of Caffrey many aliases. Caffrey was helped by two other thieves and conmen, Mozzie and Alexandra Hunter."_

_"What does a CEO have to do with CIA?"_

_"He worked in collaboration with Theodore Roark and we suspected him to be one of Fulcrum's founder"_

_At those words, Bryce's face paled : nothing good could come out of this. He gulped, hoping that the General wasn't noticing his discomfort- who was he kidding? Of course, she noticed his discomfort! He put the file on the table and stuffed his hand in his pockets before asking:_

_"What do you want me to do?"_

_"I want you to impersonate Neal Caffrey."_

_"How am I suppose to impersonate him? People know he died, nobody would buy it."_

_"Mr Adler is a bussinessman : he wouldn't want everybody to know that he killed a man, he's not that stupid. Even he doesn't know for sure if he's dead. Plus, you have an asset"_

_"Which is?"_

_Without answering, the small redhead walked toward the table, took the file in her hands and took a photo out of it, before handing it to Bryce. The spy cocked an eyebrow, cleared his throat and hesistantly took the picture. The second he looked at it, he couldn't take his eyes off of it : it was like looking in a mirror. _

_Noticing his change of attitude, Beckman slightly smirked and answered:_

_"You're his perfect replica."_

_****BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY****_

**RIVERSIDE DRIVE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK.**

**8.45 PM.**

Bryce was standing in front of a mirror, completing his reflection 'You're his perfect replica' Those few words hadn't meant much to him at the time, but now that he was thinking about it, it was true. Neal Benett and him were like twin brothers, they were one and the same.

The ex-spy, sighed, shook his head, his eyes closed. He reopened his eyes, checking his injuries. He did look horrible. He grimaced at the sight, before running his fingers through his hair. He hesistanly brought a hand to his nose and winced at the sudden pain when he touched the pansement. He looked at his arm and carefully took it off of the sling, letting a small moan of pain escape his lips. He threw the sling on the floor and brought his harmed arm close to his chest before undoing his tie with his good hand, muttering to himself:

"Way to go, Caffrey."

He threw the tie on the couch and began undoing the button of his shirt. He let out a loud swear when he took the shirt over his head, brushing his shoulder. He let out a small sigh of relief to the fact that he had the idea to wear a jersey under his shirt. He slowly took off his pants before putting on the sweatpant who was waiting for him on his bed, beside his hoodie. He put one arm in a sleeve and put the other through the picked up sling. He sighed, content of hiself.

He walked toward the kitchen, took a wine glass and a water bottle out of the fridge. He stuck the bottle under his arm and unscrewed it. He threw the bottle cap across the room and poured water in the glass before putting it on the table. Bryce opened a drawer and took his pills out of it. He took off the cap with his teeth before spitting it away and putting two pills in his mouth. He drank the water and swallowed the medicine. As he was going to pour himself another glass of water, he heard someone knock at the door.

He cocked an eyebrow, and started walking toward the door thinking '_It must be June.' _The older woman seemed pretty worried when Bryce came back, all beat up and she had say that she was going to come and check on him. He undid the lock before opening the door and was faced by a familiar blonde woman. He raised his eyebrows and stuttered:

"S-sarah, h-hi."

Sarah let out a small laugh before crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side. She cocked an eyebrow and teased:

"Did the great Bryce Larkin just stuttered?"

"You're intimidating and I wasn't expecting to see you here." he shrugged.

She laughed again and asked:

"Can I come in?" Seeing the young man's hesitation, she raised her hands in surrender and continued "I'm not armed, I swear. I just want to talk to you."

Bryce pursed his lips, thinking then moved to the side, letting her through. Sarah smiled, tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and entered the mansion. Bryce closed the door and turned to his ex-girlfriend, who wasn't facing him.

As she was suddenly remembering something, she abruptly turned around and pointed to the door, saying:

"I've met the owner of this place. June, right?" When he nodded, she smiled and continued, stuffing her hands in her pockets "She's really nice."

"Yes, she is." he sighed, smiling back. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and asked "So, Sarah Walkersoon-to-be-Bartowski - Congralutions, by the way!"

"You already said that this morning, Bryce."

"It's worth saying twice, Sarah" he retorted, still smiling. "I'm truly happy for you, guys."

Sarah chuckled, sat on the couch, shot him a genuine smile and said:

"Thank you."

Bryce nodded as to say 'you're welcome' before sitting on the opposite armchair and bringing his glass of water to his lips. He took a large gulp of his drink before asking:

"So, Agent Walker : what did I do to deserve mercy from you?"

"Do you really think everyone else wants to kill you?" she asked back, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, definitely. Well, maybe not Devon, didn't really know him before. Not Morgan, not his kind, and not that other brunette girl who was with him, who is she by the way? His girlfriend or something?"

"Oh, yeah. Yes, she is. Her name is Alex McHugh, she also is Casey's daughter."

"You're kidding, right?" Sarah shook her head and smiled as Bryce's eyes widened. He scoffed "Colonel John Casey : the perfect patriot, weapon adorater, coldblood killer, has a daughter? And she's dating Morgan Grimes? Huh! How is he still alive?"

"Casey changed." she shrugged. "People changed in two years. You, of all the people, should know that."

Bryce chuckled without humor, then put his glass on the table next to him. He looked back at Sarah, eyes full of curiousity and wonder, tilted his head to the side and asked:

"Why aren't you mad? You should hate me, for what I did, like everyone else."

"Not everybody ha-"

"Ellie probably wants to struggle me right now." He interrupted in a cold tone. "Or maybe, she'll ask Casey to shoot me - again - and then disamble my body. He won't mind, I'm sure he's been cleaning his favourite gun just in case"

"Stop being so dramatic" Sarah said, rolling her eyes "Chuck doesn't hate you, you guys were best friends. You were brothers."

Looking straight into the blonde's blue eyes, Bryce faked a smile and retorted:

"Chuck won't hesitate to shoot a bullet between my eyes if he had the chance."

Sarah didn't miss the pain in his eyes and he said those words. Her expression saddened a little, she was feeling bad for him. Sarah slowly raised from the couch and started walking toward him. She kneeled before of him and took his good in hers. He looked at her, confused, which she ignored. She cleared her throat and said:

"To your previous question, I tried to hate you. So hard. When I see you in that alley and when I really realized that it was.. really _you,_ I saw red. I was so furious after you and Beckman for lying to all of us, after me for believing everything I was said, after Chuck for running after you. But then, when we're in the FBI building, I realized that if I was at your place, if there wasn't Chuck, I would have done the same thing. Then my rage started to vanish to be replaced with joy." she chuckled, a few tears in her eyes. She blinked and some fell on her cheek. Bryce wiped it with the sleeve of his hoodie. She took a deep breath then continued, her eyes locked with his "I mean, we lived so much adventures together when we were partners, come on, we even were married!" That comment made Neal laughed "We dated, that's not nothing either. What I want to say to you is that.. You're probably one of my best friends, Bryce and I missed you so much.."

Bryce raised from the arm chair, helping Sarah up on her feet, and wrapped his good arm around her waist. Sarah immediatly hugged him back, crying on his shoulder. She tightened her embrace around his harmed shoulder, which caused him to wince in pain. Sarah chuckled:

"Sorry, I forgot. You're not that tuff anymore."

"Shut up, Walker, you're ruining the mood." he teased, hearing her laugh.

Bryce rested his chin on top of her head and whispered softly, while strocking her long blonde hair:

"I missed you too, Sarah." he kissed her forehead, closing his eyes "More than you could ever know." he said a little louder.

* * *

**A/N 2** : Hoping that you'll like this chapter! I didn't really like Sarah and Bryce as a couple, but I like them as friends :) Coming next : Drama, Ellie confronting Neal/Bryce, a nicer Chuck probably and revelations(?)

REVIEWS ARE ALMOST AS AWESOME AS COOKIES (Seriously, cookies are just perfect : if I'd end up on a desert island, the only thing I'd want would be a box of homemade cookies)

See you next Sunday(?)

KadiCriss


	5. Bluffing

**A/N: **Again, so sorry for the delay, it may doesn't seem like it but I have a life! Again, thank you so much for the feedback : reviews, followers, favoriters ( it isn't a word... yet!) : YOU GUYS ARE ALL KIND OF AWESOME !

So thanks to **Linoria, Lilywonders, Kimmeke95, Poseidon's Unclaimed Daughter, Sage5, seguist **and** Carpe-Libri** for following/adding in their favorites this fanfiction.

And thanks to** Linoria**, **Lilywonders**, **crazy diva,** **Kaya,** **Kejae**, **Guest** and** AlexisFlare **for the fantastic reviews :) I replied to some of them:

**AlexisFlare** : thank you so much! Pfiou, I can breath again and sleep with both of my eyes closed ;) Enjoy your reading !

**Guest :** Thanks for the review and sorry for the confusion, I'll try to fix that :)

**Lilywonders :** Thank you :) And don't worry, I don't plan on stopping this fanfic ;) Hope you'll enjoy this new chapter as much as you loved the last one.

**Kaya :** I know, it's sad that the "real" Neal is dead, but I kinda had to kill him (that made me sound like Dexter Morgan : justifying my crimes, telling there's a good reason for it to happen XD) for my storyline to work. And Bryce took Neal's place before making a deal with Peter and start working for the FBI. As for Mozzie being suspicious, just read this chapter ;) Hope you'll enjoy it and thanks again for the review !

**Lilly :** Thank you, and the others will find out.. Eventually.. ^^" Enjoy your reading !

**crazy diva** : Last but not least :) Yep, Neal's dead, kinda sucks... Sorry if it made you sad :/ I love that you loved Sarah and Neal's meeting's, Bryce yelling at Chuck's and Bryce becoming Neal's parts 'cuz those were the one I enjoyed the most writing about :D There will may be Bryce's whumpage, I can't tell you for sure : I've changed so many things in the story since I've started writing this fanfic. As for when Bryce became Neal, I already answered to that question (look up !). And for the drama and confrontation, keep reading and enjoy ! ;)

**Disclaimer : **I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters. If I did, it would had never ended. It belongs to NBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and tot USA NETWORKS.

* * *

**THE NEXT DAY.**

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR DIVISION, NEW YORK**

**9.36 AM**

Neal entered the FBI building, carrying on a tray four cups of coffee for his fellow partners. Diana walked toward him. The young blue eyed man smiled back and handed her a cup. She took it with both of her hands, inhaled the sentence, letting out a small moan of delight. Diana looked at him and asked:

"How much milk did you put in it?"

"Half a cup."

"Did you put sweetners in it?"

"Yep" he replied, popping the 'p' at the end of the word.

"Cream?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And-"

"And I didn't forget the cinnamon." Neal interrupted her, a knowing smile on his lips.

Diana smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek as a 'thank you. He nodded and started walking toward Peter's office, only to find it empty. Neal frowned in his eyebrows and turned toward his female partner.

"Eh, Berrigan!"

Diana lift her eyes for the file she was reading and looked at Neal. The young man indicated with his thumb their boss' empty office and asked:

"Where's Peter?"

"He had a meeting with the general Beckman. He should be back soon."

Neal nodded at her answer, even though he was still confused of the reasons of this 'meeting.' He saw Jones enter the building carrying his bag on a shoulder. He smiled at him and did a small wave in his direction. The black agent smiled before taking one of the coffees Neal had brought earlier. He took a sip of it and asked:

"Shouldn't you be resting?"

"Why?"

"Because you got your ass kick yesterday, you've got a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder and a broken nose out of it" he replied, cocking an eyebrow.

Neal scoffed and sat on the desk, replying:

"I'm fine. I prefer be bored here, surrounded by my friends, than being bored at my place, all alone."

Jones rolled her eyes as Diana chuckled. Neal allowed a small chuckle to escape his lips. He suddenly felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He got down off the desk and took the device out of his pocket. On the screen was the name of Mozzie. He sighed, pondering the cons and pros.** Pro** : if he picked up his phone, Neal would speak with him and feel less bored. **Con :** if he picked up, Mozzie would ask him questions about yesterday's fight and Chuck. Neal pursed his lips then, after several minutes of meditation, answered the call. The ex-conman brought his phone to his ear and exclaimed:

"Hey, Moz'! What's up?"

"_Don't 'Moz' me, Caffrey!"_ an unusually angry voice replied.

"What's wrong? He asked in a falsy confused tone. Neal knew_ exactly_ what was wrong.

"_Oh, please you don't fool me, Neal. I'm the one who taught everything you know today_-"

"Well, Alex kinda helped too and-" Neal muttered.

"_Whatever_" Mozzie interrupted "_I'm your master, I'm your sensei, I'm your master Yoda. You can't con **me**_**.**"

'Oh shit' Neal thought, his face becoming white. He ran a hand over his face, trying to calm himself, ignoring the worried glances his partners were shoting at him. Neal sighed then said:

"Ok, Moz', calm down : what's goi-"

_"Oh, cut the crap, I don't buy it"_ Mozzie interrupted _"Meet me at the Central Park Zoo, in front of the lions' enclosure, in 10 minutes. Don't be late._" Then he hung up before Neal could agreed.

Still dumbfound by his friend's call, he stuffed his phone in his pocket and put his fedora hat. Diana frowned her eyebrows, crossed her arms and asked:

"Neal?"

As if the young woman's voice broke the curse he was under, Neal turned his head to look at his partner. Diana tilted her head to the side and continued:

"Are you okay?"

Was he okay? He's been asking this question since he saw Chuck and talked with Sarah. He shot her his 'Caffrey' smirk and nodded, replying:

"Yes."

'Liar' a small voice sang his head. He shook his head to chase the voice away. Jones insisted:

"You're sure about it?"

"Pretty sure. It was just Moz' and - Well, you know how he is."

"Not really" Jones grimaced "I'm trying to avoid him as much as possible : this guy's freaking me out."

This little comment made Neal and Diana snort. Neal took his jacket and walked toward the exit door, asking:

"Eh, if Peter came back before I do, could you tell him I went to meet with Sara?

"Why lying?" Diana wondered, frowing her eyebrows in confusion.

" 'Cause if you tell him I went to meet with Mozzie, he'd think I'm hiding something and organizing robberies."

"But you are hiding something, ain't you?" the young woman insisted. Neal stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her, looking like a hurt puppy. Seeing the ex-conman pleading blue eyes, she rolled her eyes and said "I gotcha, Caffrey, don't worry. Now, go before I change my mind."

Neal grinned at her and blew her a kiss before exiting the federal building.

****FLASH-BACK****

_**CIA NEW YORK HEADQUARTERS, 2009.**_

_Beckman had ordererd some agent to give Bryce clothes that weren't torn apart and had asked a doctor to observe and take care of his injuries. Both of them were now in a place where people were throwing knives and shooting bullets at mannequins, others were fighting with swords or with the fists and some were analyzing files to hack some big compagnies. Even though the inscription on this building 'New York Bank', everyone with eyes could see that something was going in here. Especially Bryce, who had spent at least a year training in here. _

_As the doctor finished patching his arm, Beckman came back with a bald little man with glasses. He looked like a weasel. The small ginger woman cleared her throat to catch her agent's attention. Bryce raised his hand and as he saw his superior waiting for him to notice her, he abruptly rose from the chair he was in. He put his hands behind his back and gave her a short nod, saying:_

_"General."_

_"Agent Larkin." she put a hand on the bold man's shoulder and introduced "Meet Mr Mozzie."_

_"Only Mozzie. Not need to be so formal" the small guy intervened. _

_"Mozzie is going to be your source and trainer._

_Bryce turned to the small man, smiled at him and held out a hand. Mozzie looked at the hand, a disguted look on his face then said, shaking his head:_

_"I don't shake hands."_

_"O..kay." he replied, cocking an eyebrow and letting his hand fall to his side. Confused, he frowned his eyebrows and turned to the small ginger woman and asked "Wait, trainer?"_

_"Think of me as your sensei, your Master Yoda." Mozzie replied instead of Beckman._

_"I don't need a trainer, nor do I need a Master Yoda. No offense." he adressed the last part to Mozzie, who shurgged it off "I'm one of your best agents, you said it yourself."_

_"That's the problem" Mozzie answered again "You're always acting like you're a spy-"_

_"Which I am" Bryce interrupted, shoting a 'duh!' look._

_"But Neal Caffrey isn't" the short man continued "he's a conman : he's carefree, charming and doesn't walk around with weapons on him. So if you want everybody, even I, to believe that you're who you say you are, by that, I mean, Neal George Bennet, a conman suspected of hundreds of thefts. Anf for that, you got to forget who you are, who you were ever trained to be. From now, Bryce Larkin is dead and Neal Caffrey is still on the loose, waiting for the FBI to caught him again."_

**_**BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY**_**

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR DIVISION, NEW YORK**

** 2:05 PM.**

CIA and FBI agents were each sitting on opposite sides of the table, facing Peter. The FBI agent quicky scanned the room, looking for his consultant. He frowned his eyebrows, turned to Diana and Jones, then asked:

"Where's Neal? I highly doubt that he listened to me and took the day off, did he?"

"He dropped off coffees this morning, then saw you weren't there and left." Jones replied, after exchanging a quick glance with Diana "Said something like spending time with Sara."

Peter frowned his eyebrows again, suspicious. He had visited Sara's office earlier and talked with her during several hours about Neal and other things after his meeting with Beckman. The young woman hadn't say anything about Neal visiting her. He pursed his lips for a few minutes then muttered:

"Huh! Well, we'll start without him"

He noticed the quick glance his two agents shared once again. He took out his phone and quickly sent a message to Sara before putting it back in his pocket.

**To : Sara E. (cellphone)**

**From : Peter **

**Hey, did Neal drop by when or before I left your office this morning?**

_**Message sent at 2:09 PM, April 3rd.**_

Peter took the multiple files than were on the table and passed them to each of the agents. Once they each opened it, he pointed to a picture on the white board next to him and started talking:

"This is Theodore Roark, ex-CEO of Roark Intruments and for now, our priority is to catch him and to lock him in a cell. He's been in New York for a month and -"

"You were aware of his location for a month and you didn't arrest him?" Casey scoffed.

"I don't know what you think we do here, Colonel, but knowing his location doesn't make the job easier" Diana retorted in a cold tone, shoting him a dark glare.

"Whatever, I don't know why we're working in collaboration with suits" Casey muttered, crossing his arms "This case belongs to us."

"Not really, actually" Jones intervened "I don't think you know anything about burglaries or forgery, unlike us. This case belongs to _us_."

As Casey was grunting, Chuck put a hand on his forearm and said, straightening in his chair:

"You really think that we're interested in Roark because he decided to start robbing banks and burgling mansions?"

"Why would you be if not for that?" Peter asked, as he sat next to Diana and crossed his arms

"The bastard is supposed to be dead" Sarah replied "Our own team made sure of that."

"Roark is just a thief. Why would his dead be necessary?" Diana wondered, frowning her eyebrows.

Chuck, Sarah and Casey exchanged suspicious and unsure glances, not knowing what they're allowed or not to say. Casey gave a small nod at Chuck who sighed before saying:

"Before being CEO of a massive compagny, Roark is a computer scientist. Some people say he created some of today most successful computer technologies, comparing him to Steve Jobbs and Bill Gates -"

"Wait - how do you all that?" Jones asked, suspicious.

"Roark worked with my father on several projects. Unfortunately, they parted one day, having a divergence of ideas and interests. According to my father, Roark stole some ideas from him. Those ideas were great, if they hadn't been in Roark's hands: him and his firm has been implicated in several suspect technology transfer deals and Roark has been under CIA surveillance for over a year. That's when we learn that he was working for Fulcrum, an hostile espionage organizition formed in 2003 : rumor has it than every federal organization has a Fulcrum agent in its ranks. We suspect Roark to be one of its founders."

"What did Fulcrum hired him for?" Peter asked.

"My father also worked for the CIA : he created a super computer containing the secrets of every federal and governemental agences of the world : CIA, NSA, even FBI. Since the original one belong to the CIA and NSA They hired Roark to built a new one." Chuck answered. "He failed."

"What else does this 'super-computer' contain?"

"I'm afraid that if I tell you, I'd have to kill you, Agent Burke." Chuck replied in a cold tone, smirking darkly.

The young man didn't know how much he was allowed to say. He was afraid he'd said too much when he started talking about Fulcrum and the Intersecret. He shot a quick glance, making sure that he hadn't let anything important slip without him noticing. His brown eyes met his fiancée's blue ones and the young blonde woman shot him a small, yet comforting, took his hand in hers under the table and squeezed it softly.

Peter sighed, looking at the three CIA agents. He had a weird feeling about this '_Chuck'_ guy. He had a weird a feeling about this all team. He had a weird feeling Neal, who had started to act differently since those CIA agents had arrived in New York. Peter didn't know what this feeling was but he was going to do everything he could to discover what it was.

The FBI agent slighly jumped when he felt his cellphone buzz in his pant's pocket. He took it and frowned in his eyebrows and he read Sara's answer:

**From : Sara E. (cellphone)**

**No, he didn't. Why? Is something wrong with him?**

_**Message received at 2:20 PM, April 3rd.**_

Peter sighed before taping back :

**To : Sarah E. (cellphone)**

**From : Peter**

**I honestly don't know.**

_**Message sent at 2:20, April 3rd.**_

_***BREAKLINE***_

**MEANWHILE...****NEW YORK'S STARBUCK**

**2:25 PM.**

Neal took out his phone off his pocket to see that he had three missed calls and one unread message from Diana, one for Jones and five from Peter. He hissed and grimaced when he saw that he also had one missed call and five unread messages from Sara. He sighed and read some of it :

**From : Diana (cellphone)**

**To : Neal**

**Where the hell are you ? What do you have a cellphone for ? Peter just enter the building with these CIA guys. You know what ? I don't care where the hell you are, just get you silly ass back here.**

_**Message received at 1:50 PM, April 3rd.**_

**_..._**

**From: Sara E. (cellphone)**

**To****: Neal**

**Hey, just wanted to check on you since.. Well you know... See you tonight :)**

_**Message received at 1:55 PM, April 3rd.**_

**...**

**From: Sara E. (cellphone)**

**To****: Neal**

**Neal Caffrey, can you answer your damn phone once in a while? You know I hate it when you don't. Can you at least call me back to confirm that you're still alive and that we're still on for tonight?**

_**Message received at 2:04 PM, April 3rd.**_

**...**

**From: Sara E. (cellphone)**

**To****_:_ Neal**

**Answer. The. Damn. Phone.**

_**Message received at 2:17 PM, April 3rd.**_

**...**

**From: Sara E. (cellphone)**

**To****: Neal**

**Where the hell are you and why aren't you answering me? I just received a message from Peter. Is something wrong? Please, answer me, Neal.**

_**Message received at 2:21 PM, April 3rd.**_

The ex-conman sighed as he put his cellphone back in his pocket and let his hand fall on his good arm, muttering to himself:

"I'm so screwed."

"That's a understatement." A familiar and feminine voice said.

Bryce abruptly rose his head, which made his shoulder throb. He let out a moan of pain escaping his lips before looking up at the brunette and said, his eyes wide opened:

"E-Ellie, hi."

She let out a humorless snort escape her lips before sitting in the chair in front of the blue eyed man and asked, cocking an eyebrow:

"Since when do you stutter?"

"Since you guys arrived to New York and each of you decided to have a little talk with me. You guys are terryfying me" he answered.

"Well you should be. Terrified, I mean." She added before taking a slip of her drink.

Bryce snorted, taping two fingers against the table before saying:

"So, how are-"

"I'm not here to have a little chit-chat with you, Bryce." she interrupted him, shoting him a dark glare.

"Of course you are not" he muttered under his breath.

"I just wanted to give you a small piece of advice."

"Please do" the brown haired man sighed, taping two fingers against the table, before taking a gulp of his coffee

"I want Chuck to drop this case." Ellie simply said.

Bryce's eyes widened at the young woman's revelation and he nearly choked on his coffee. He cleared his throat, put the drink back on the table and asked:

"Come again?"

"You heard me, Bryce. I want_ you_ to convince Chuck to drop the case."

"You came to the wrong person. Why don't you ask that to Sarah or Morgan or _even_ Casey?" Bryce wondered, frowning his eyebrows.

"They'll tell him I'm the one I told them to do it." Ellie sighed. "Plus, they won't understand."

"And you think I would?" the blue eyed man, cocking an eyebrow.

"Beside Morgan and I, you know Chuck better than anyone else. You also know why I don't want Chuck to have anything to do with Roark."

"So does his fiancée" Bryce insisted, causing Ellie to groan and throw her head back. The young blue eyed man sighed, rubbing his forehead with his good hand before saying "Honestly, Ellie, I don't understand why you're asking my help for this. Chuck doesn't even want to talk me -"

"Which I totally understand" Ellie muttered, raising an eyebrow.

" - I don't think that he would listen to me." he finished, ignoring the older woman's remark "Plus he probably wants my head on a silver platter." he muttered, benting his head.

A few minutes of silence followed the young man's words. Bryce slowly raised back his head and saw Ellie watching him, her brown eyes filled with curiosity. Bryce sighed and asked:

"What, now?"

"You really think that Chuck wants to see you dead?" she asked. Bryce just shrugged with his good shoulder. Ellie scoffed "You're stupidier than I thought, Larkin."

He let out a humorless chuckle before running his fingers through his short brown hair. Ellie sighed, then said:

"Listen, Chuck may be mad at you-"

"That's an understatement." Bryce interrupted, tilting his head to the side.

" - but that doesn't mean he wants you dead. You guys were best friends, for god's sake! He doesn't hate you, he's just... He'll come around, trust me."

"He learnt that two persons of his past who were supposed dead were alive" he retorted, carefully raising from his chair "I don't think he'll come around, soon"

As he threw the empty cup in the trash next to the exit door, Ellie shouted:

"Bryce!"

The young blue eyed man stopped in his track and turned toward her, shoting her a interrogatery look. Ellie bit a bottom lip, hesitating, then asked:

"Could you think about my proposal? Please?"

Bryce pursed his lips, thinking for a few seconds then shot her a small smile and replied:

"Sure"

She smiled back and sighed:

"Thank you."

The young blue eyed man nodded before going out of the small café.

.

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK**

**2:45 PM.**

Bryce entered the building, greeting some of the agents he recognized with a smile or a handshake. He stopped in front of the elevators, waiting for one to open. When an empty one opened in front of him, Bryce immediatly stepped inside and pressed a button, muttering:

"Come on, come on, come on.."

When the doors closed, Bryce let out a sigh of relief before turning toward the large mirror behind. The young man grimaced at his reflection and slowly took off the pansement on his nose, slightly wincing of pain. He threw the small band in the trash next to him and sighed, shaking his hand.

Bryce hesistantly brought his thumb to his nose and winced at the contact. The blue eyed man sighed again and muttered, shaking his hand:

"Okay..."

He grabbed his broken nose between two fingers, ignoring the pain. He bit his bottom lip, closed his eyes and with a quick snap, put his nose back in place. He moaned of pain and winced when he heard the small**_ 'crack'_** noise. Bryce put a finger under his nose and noticed that he was bleeding a little. He sniffed before taking a tissue out of his pocket and whipping the blood around his nose. The brunette sniffed again and looked one last time in the mirror, now a little more satisfied of his apparence.

Bryce smirked, stuffed a hand in his pocket and turned around a few seconds before the doors opened again. When he stepped out of the elevator, his smirk started to vanish and he froze : in front of him were Peter, Sara, Diana and Jones looking at him like he had commited a crime. Behind them were Sarah, Casey and Chuck, who were curiously watching him. Bryce muttered to himself "Shit" before clearing his throat and start acting like Neal Caffrey. He frowned his eyebrow and asked:

"Hey, guys. Is something wron- _OW_!" He shouted, rubbing the shoulder punched by Sara "It's the only arm I have left, please don't break it too!"

"_Where the hell_ were you all morning?! We tried calling you a billion time!" The auburn haired girl asked, co her boyfriend's complaints.

"I was out, _geez, woman!_ You're stronger that you look.. What's the matter with you, guys ? I didn't get out of my radius nor rob a bank!"

"So why did you lie by saying that you're going to spend time with Sara?" Peter asked, crossing his arms, suspicious.

"I-" Bryce started.

"Just answer the question, Caffrey" Sara interrupted him.

_****FLASHBACK****_

_**EARLIER THIS DAY...**_

_**CENTRAL PARK ZOO, NEW YORK.**_

_Bryce found Mozzie sitting on a bench in front of the lions' enclosure, a milkshake in his hand. The young blue eyed put his sunglasses on and started walking toward him. He sighed and sat by his sides. Mozzie slowly turned toward him, took a sip of his drink then said:_

_"You're late."_

_Bryce frowned his eyebrows and looked at his watch. He looked back at his friend, cocking an eyebrow and retorted:_

_"Of two minutes... What's the difference, anyway?"_

_"It's a difference of two minutes. A lot can happen in a short amount of time : I could've been kidnapped, assaulted or even worse ! This lion could've jump above the fence and eat me."_

_"But it obviously didn't happen." Bryce said, a small smile on his face. "What is the emergency? You seemed pretty pissed on the phone earlier"_

_"Oh yeah, why did you change your doorlock?"_

_"Pardon me?" he asked, taken aback by the small man question._

_"You heard me. You changed your doorlock, why?"_

_"Because you're always coming at my place, when I'm not here and sipping all my wine and - Oh my god, why am I even answering this? Was that why you called me?"_

_"Yep." Mozzie answered in a casual tone._

_Bryce stood up, rolling his eyes and said:_

_"See ya, Moz'."_

_"Caffrey, wait!" Mozzie shouted before he started walking away._

_Bryce froze and turned around. When Mozzie started calling him 'Caffrey' when they were alone, it meant that he was afraid of blowing his cover. Bryce shot him an interrogatery look. Mozzie took the big brown package next to him and threw at the young blue eyed man. The brunette caught with his good hand and opened it. In it was a small paper with written on it '**I know you're still alive.' **Bryce frowned his eyebrows and threw the small paper away. Under the paper were photographies. They were a lot of them : Bryce walking alone, Bryce laughing with Peter and the rest of his team, Bryce kissing Sara and finally Bryce and Mozzie talking. The young blue eyed man shook his head and asked:_

_"Where and when did you get that?"_

_"I found it in front of your door before leaving." Mozzie answered._

_"There are at a hundred of pictures in this box." Bryce sighed before looking at Mozzie "Do you-"_

_"Know who sent it?" he interrupted. "It could've been Adler, it could've been Roark. Both of them wanted Neal Caffrey and Bryce Larkin dead."_

_Bryce sighed before putting the photos back in the box and closing it. Mozzie suddenly said in a low voice:_

_"Be careful, Larkin. Either of them would do anything to get to you. If they realize that you and Neal Caffrey are one and the same -"_

_"They'll both come for me." Bryce finished, realizing the danger of the situation if it happened. He shook his head before handing back the box to Mozzie "Could you keep it? I don't want Peter or Sara to find this."_

_"Sure."_

_"Thanks."_

_Bryce walked away, stuffing his good hand in his pocket. Behind him, he could hear Mozzie shouting:_

_"DON'T FORGET TO GIVE ME A DOUBLE OF YOUR KEYS!"_

_The ex-CIA agent smirked, and shouted back:_

_"SEE YA, MOZ'!"_

**_**BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY**_**

"Well? What do you have to say in your defence, Caffrey?" Peter asked again.

Bryce took a deep breath before replying:

"I did say at Diana and Jones that I wanted to spend some time with Sara, since you weren't there. So, I got out of the building and went back at my place, plugging my phone, which was almost discharged and before leaving to go and meet my girlfriend, I got a call of Mozzie, who had something important to tell me. Don't give me that look, Peter."

"What look?" he asked, innocently.

"The 'he's-up-to-something-bad' look! I'm not organizing New York's next burglary with Moz'."

"So what did you two talk about?" Sara asked.

"So much trust!" he muttered before sighing "It's almost June's birthday and Mozzie didn't know what to buy her. So we met up in June's favourite store and searched for the perfect gift. I left the store two hours after. Not wanting to disturb you and having forget my phone at home, I took Mozzie's phone and called your office and they told me you were busy with someone. After that, I went home and rest a little."

"Do you have someone you can testify that?" Diana asked.

"What is this? An interrogatery?"Bryce said,rolling his eyes and sitting on the closest desk. "You can call June or Mozzie, they'll testify."

The young man was hoping that they wouldn't call either of them and that they couldn't see that he was bluffing. Sara sighed before letting her arms fall on her sides. She said:

"I believe you. Pete?"

Bryce turned to Peter, hoping that he would be his story. The older man also sighed and nodded:

"I believe you too. But if when I switched the TV tonight and found out that Mr Caffrey has struck again, I'll personnaly escort you back to prison. Got it?"

"Got it." Bryce laughed.

Peter smiled at him before patting his shoulder and announcing:

"Ok, everybody : let's take five!"

As the FBI agents were clearing the room, Chuck slowly walked toward Bryce and whispered in his ear:

"Well play, Larkin."

After his departure, Bryce couldn't help but grin and remember Ellie's words. Maybe he'd come around.

* * *

**A/N 2 : Lame ending, I know. :/ **

**Okay, everybody you know what to do : R.E.V.I.E.W ! 3 :)**


	6. Like Old Times

**A/N : **My excuse ? Life's a bitch. Seriously. A mother fuckin' bitch. Plus, I'm lazy. During this last month, I ended up in the hospital twice, my best friend had a car accident and one of my roles models died. Talking about holidays. Plus my laptop died too, so.. Yeah ! Thanks again for the feedback, it make my days ten times better ! :)

So thanks to **Princess Amalee**,** Kitten has claws,** **exileena**,**adookable,neal4grissom**, **Ugla**, **Alexia cooper**,** Bad Wolf's Howl**, **coffeee**, **ellky510**, and **TheSecretGarden101 **for following/favouriting this fanfiction : you guys are awesome !

Thanks to **Lilywonders**, **Guest,** **Tempe4Booth, crazy diva**,**senselesswords**, **21JumpStreetMcQuaids,** **Only If,** **Linoria** and **AlexisFlare f**or the fantastic reviews !

**Lilywonders** : Glad you liked it :) ! Of course Mozzie had to be included.. I mean, he's... Well, he's Mozzie, not some dumbass ! Thanks again for the review and I hope you'll like this chapter !

**Guest** : Thanks, I'm working on it. There'll be some action in chapter 6, I'm still installing the plot but there'll definetely be action soon :) !

**Tempe4Booth** : Thanks, and I promise to try ! ;)

**senselesswords** : Yey me, I updated! Seeing your enthousiasm, it means that some people are reading this, so I'm glad I'm not writing for nothing :) Different's good, I like different (I heard that somewhere but I can't remember when. I think it's from Pretty Little Liars- whatever!) Glad you find my story to your liking! Sorry again for the late update :/

**21JumpStreetMcQuaids** : Thank you ! :)

**Only If :** Thanks :D ! Here's more ;)

**Linoria** : Thank you very much ! You'll find out what's Ellie up to in this chapter **suspense**

**AlexisFlare:** Glad that you loved it ! Here's more :P !

**crazy diva: **your reviews are the lights of my day :) Seriously, I've been waiting for it ! Thank you and I'm glad you liked Ellie/Bryce's conversation and don't worry, they'll be friends again. But for now, they're just working together, so Chuck is going to be nice with him. He's not going to snap at Bryce at him every time he open his mouth, but they're not friends yet. Updated!

Okay, now back to the story, people !

**DISCLAIMER :** I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters. If I did, it would had never ended. It belongs to NBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and to USA NETWORKS.

* * *

**A FEW DAYS LATER..**

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR DIVISION, NEW YORK.**

**2:35 PM.**

Almost a week had passed in New York and both of the teams were working hard, trying to found a way of capturing Roark and his team without any difficulty. Bryce/Neal was mostly working with the CIA team, trying to cover his tracks so Roark wouldn't find out Bryce Larkin was still alive. Peter and Sara were becoming more and more suspicious of Neal's secretive behaviour around them and the other members of the white collar unit.

On the bright side, Casey didn't tried to kill him. Yet. And his relationship with Chuck was starting to become more friendly toward Bryce. Well, friendly wasn't the exact word, but the young spy was actually talking to him instead of yelling or spitting at his face

Bryce was lazily sitting at his desk, feet on the table, reading for the billionth time, Roark's file. The young blue eyed man threw the file on the desk, sighing before putting his feet back on the ground and straightening in his chair. He ran his fingers through his short dark hair before grabbing a bottle of pain killers on the table. Bryce took off the cap with his teeth, spat it away and put two pills in his mouth before swallowing them with water. The young raven haired grunted, attracting the attention of the blonde spy sitting next to him. Sarah cocked an eyebrow and asked:

"What's the matter?"

"I'm sick of wearing my arm in a sling. I can't do anything" Bryce whined, showing his armed arm "I'm righthanded, remember?"

Hearing the ex-conman complaining, Diana rolled her eyes and retorted, eyes on her computer:

"Caffrey, your shoulder has been dislocated. Let it heal."

"I didn't went to medical school but my sister did and, based on the few things she told and taught me, I don't think that a dislocated shoulder heal itself" Chuck intervened, walking into the room, a bag on his shoulder.

The nerd fell in the chair next to Sarah and greeted his fiancée with a soft kiss on the cheek. He put the bag on the floor and took a notebook and several files out of it. He looked back at Bryce and said, taking his phone out of his pocket:

"I could send a quick text at Ellie to ask her to come and see if she could help."

"That would be awesome, thanks." Bryce replied, smiling at his ex-best friend.

Chuck smiled back and nodded before typing on his phone. Casey and Peter walked into the conference room, followed by Jones. Casey eyed the files next to his partner and asked, taking one of them:

"What's that?"

"That, my friend, is one of some CIA files on Roark and others that Beckman authorized me to use." Chuck replied.

"What do you mean by 'others'?" Bryce wondered, raising from his chair to observe the several files.

"Roark's smart but he's not a conman, so he surrounded himself with people who knew a thing or two about forger and conning" Chuck explained.

He took a file and handed it to Peter. The FBI agent frowned his eyebrows before opening the folder. As he started examining the report, Chuck continued:

"This is Laurent Dujardin, a french ex-CEO, who after being accused of tax evasion in France and losing everything he owned, decided to escape the european territory and install himself in Washington, under a new identity : Johnathan Duris. That is when he met this guy" he said, handing another file to Diana "Malcolm Gilbert, a very talented conman and forgerer, coming from Scotland. Gilbert and Duris conned more than a thousand persons in three months. They eventually get caught two years ago and sent to prison."

"Wait - why the CIA have those files? They should belong to us." Diana asked.

"Both of them were also accused of making weapons and working for Fulcrum. They were sentenced to ten years of prison each. But a few months after their arrestation, they escaped while they were transfered to a CIA base in New York. After months of searching, the CIA and NSA found nothing and assumed they were dead, like Roark." Chuck stopped when he remembered he needed to breath. He shook his head and played with the Governor's bracelet around his wrist. Chuck took a deep breath before taking two photos out of a brown envelope, put them on the table and continued "Well, we're convinced they were dead weeks ago" Chuck pushed one of the pictures toward Bryce, saying "This has been taken a week ago."

Bryce took the photography and quickly examined it : there were three men on the photo, they were sitting in front of a small restaurant in a mall. The first man who caught his attention was a tall blonde man who seemed in his last thirtie. After a quick glance at one of the folders next to Chuck, Bryce identified the blonde man as Duris. Duris was sitting between two men : one had brown hair and was wearing sunglasses - Bryce assumed that was Parker - and the other was a grey haired man. The man seemed oddly familiar.

The ex-conman frowned his eyebrows, put the picture on the table and asked , pointing to the grey haired man :

"Is that Roark?"

Chuck raised his head, shot a quick glance at it and said, nodding :

"Yes, it's him. And the other men are Duris and Parker" 'Obviously' Bryce thought "Apparently, the three of them have been meeting at the exact same spot and always at the same time" the nerd added.

Chuck kept talking but Bryce has paying attention to him anymore. The ex-conman sat on a chair next to him and let his head fell on his arms. God, those painkillers were litteraly killing him! He was exhausted and his shoulder felt like it was on fire. Bryce could feel Peter's concerned eyes on him but he was too tired to do any movement.

Suddenly, Bryce jerked from his chair, caughting everybody by surprise. The ex-conman ignored the sudden pain in his arm and asked, looking at Chuck :

"Wait - what did you just say?"

"They're currently under surveillance of the NS-"

"Na-uh ! Before that." The blue eyed man interrupted him.

"Caffrey : please, be more specific." Peter ordered, crossing his arms.

"When did you say they usually meet?"

"Um.. each thursday, at 2:05 PM, exactly." Chuck answered hesistantly, looking confused. "Wait, why is that so important?"

"I don't get that either." Peter added.

"What day is it ?" Bryce asked again, ignoring the men's questions.

"Monday - where are you going with this, Neal?" Diana wondered, frowning.

Bryce smirked, chuckled to himself and stuffed his good hand in his pocket. Chuck squinted his eyes and shot a confused look at Peter, who just shrugged. The ex-conman stopped chuckling and looked between the two agents before saying :

"You don't get it, do you ?"

"No, not really."

"Ok, those guys are stupid enough to meet every Thursday at the exact same spot and exact same time. We could proceed to an arrestation" Bryce explained. "They think we're just after Roark, so he doesn't know that his two minions are under the CIA and NSA's watch. We've got the advantage"

The young blue eyed man's partners and ex-partners looked at him, slowly understanding what he meant. Diana turned to Peter and said:

"He had worse ideas, Boss. This one is kinda good."

As Bryce shot him a smile, proud of himself, Peter shook his head, saying:

"No."

"_No'_?! What do you mean by '_no_'? It's the perfect idea!" Bryce protested "All we have to do is asking for permission, form a plan-"

"Caffrey, there is no 'we' on this case, anymore!" Peter interrupted. "You're in a critical position since your little fight with Mr Agent, there : the Board isn't that fond of you in that moment, nodody isn't going to accept that idea, since it's yours. I'm doing everything here in my power to stop them from sending you back to jail. And trust me, they'll find a reason to do it. Real or fake"

As everybody was watching the exchange, Diana felt her cellphone buzzing in her pocket. The young woman took it and brought it to her ear, walking away from the little group. Peter continued:

"They don't trust you, they're starting not to trust me and they definitely don't trust the CIA or NSA."

"The feeling is mutual" Casey grumbled.

Sarah rolled her eyes as Chuck put his hand on his mouth, hiding his smirk and containing his laughter. Peter ignored the governemental agents and glared at Bryce who had opened his mouth and started to say:

"But-"

"This discussion is over, Neal." The older man interrupted him in a cold tone.

The young blue eyed man sighed before sitting back next to the blonde spy as Diana walked back toward them. She frowned her eyebrows at the defeated look on her co-worker's face before turning to Peter and saying:

"There was another burglary. The victime is Alice Ellingston, the Procuror's daughter. We're required there immediatly."

Peter gave her a quick a nod as Jones, Sarah, Casey and Chuck raised from the chair, gathering their stuff and getting ready to go. As Bryce also raised from his chair, Peter shot him a _'don't-even-think-about-it' _look. Not protesting, he sat back down, grunting. The older man shot him a last look before exititng the building, followed by Jones, Diana, Casey and Sarah.

Chuck watched them leave before turning to Bryce, hesistant. The ex-CIA agent shot him an interrogatory look as the nerd put back his bag back on his shoulder. Chuck stuffed his hands in his pockets and said:

"I texted Ellie, for your shoulder. She'll be here soon, I think."

"Oh!" Bryce simply said "Thanks."

Chuck shot him a small smile and turned around, ready to leave.

"Chuck!" Bryce called

The spy turned toward the brunette and raised an eyebrow, inviting him to continue.

"I'm sorry" Bryce said, guilt in his eyes.

Chuck's smile grew wider as he said:

"I know."

"Really?" Bryce asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Chuck nodded, walked closer to his ex-best friend and said:

"I think I understand why you did what you did. I probably would've done the same thing.

Bryce smiled as he remembered the discussion he had with Sarah a few days ago. Chuck continued.

"And if we have to work together on this case, I think that we should get along and trust each other. And eventually, become friends again."

"So.. we're cool?"

Chuck smiled and nodded again as he replied:

"Definetely."

Not letting his ex-best friend reply, Chuck turned around and left the building.

* * *

**ALICE ELLINGSTON'S APARTMENT, MANHATTAN.**

**3:05 PM.**

As both of the teams entered the victim's apartment, Alice Ellingston walked straight toward them. She was a tall and thin woman, had bright green eyes and long blond curls that fell perfectly on her shoulders. If she wasn't a succesful lawyer, she could've been a mannequin.

The first thing Peter noticed was the fact that the place was tidy, everything seemed to be in its right place. You could hardly say there was a burglary in there. He frowned his eyebrows and looked up at the young woman in front of him, who stretched a hand and introduced herself:

"FBI, I presume. I'm Alice Ellington."

Peter nodded before taking her hand and shaking it:

"Ma'am. I'm Peter Burke, head of the White Collar division. These are my collegues, Agents Jones and Barrigan" he said, pointing to the man and woman by his sides, who gave a short nod.

Chuck stretched out a hand and introduced himself and his teammates :

"Hello, ma'am. I'm Special Agent Charles Carmichael and these are my teammates, Sarah Walker and Colonel John Casey?"

"Governmental agents?" Alice asked, frowning her eyebrows. Sarah gave her a short nod "Why?"

Casey, Sarah and Chuck exchanged glances before Peter came to their rescue and answered:

"To help."

"This is just a burglary. Why would you need help from the CIA?"

"That, you don't need to know." Diana retorted, with a fake smile on her lips.

Even though she looked like she wanted to add something, Alice didn't. She returned the smile, crossed her arms and nodded the young woman a nod, before inviting all the agents to sit down on a couch.

As they sat down, the raven haired woman asked politely:

"Do any of you want something to drink?"

"No, I think we're all good, thank you." Chuck replied with a smile "Although, would you mind telling me where the bathroom is?"

"Not at all. Go upstairs , turn to the right and open the first door you'll see."

Chuck thanked her with a nod and a smile before walking toward the stairs and climbing them two by two. Upstairs, he could faintly heard the questions asked by the federal agents. As he started walking toward the bathroom, he noticed that the door on his left was half opened.

He cocked an eyebrow and quietly walked toward the door. Chuck knocked softly but didn't get an answer. He looked behind him, to see if anyone was coming upstairs then slowly pushed the door so he could enter the room.

The room was pretty dark and dusty. Chuck sneezed before coughing and bringing his shirt to the tip of his nose and walked in quietly. There was nothing worth getting stealed. He walked toward the desk : on it were some files and old pictures. Not very interesting. Chuck walked through the room, scanning some files and books, hoping to find something he could flash on. Nothing. Chuck sighed, putting the book back on itshelf.

As he was going to exit the office, a picture caught his attention. He frowned his eyebrows before walking back toward the desk and taking the frame in his hands. On the picture, you could see a young Alice - she seemed like 18 - sitting on the shoulders of an older man. who seemed oddly familiar. The two looked like twins. The man was pretty tall, he had curly blond hair and big bright green eyes. Both of them were laughing when the picture was taken. Chuck examinated it closer and his eyes widened when he recognized the young man on the photography.

He took the photography out of its frame, foiled it, stuffed it in his back and took out his cellphone, quickly dialing a number. After severals rings, someone finally pick up. Chuck said:

"Hey, it's me: could yo- _Don't call me that._." he hissed as his interlocutor interrupted him "** [...]** Wait, what?** [...]** How in hell am I suppose to know what are Ellie's favourites flowers?! I'm her brother, not her husband. What are they for anyway ? **[...]** Whatever, could I ask a favor?** [...]** Ok: I want you to find anything you can about Alice Ellington and her relations with Duris** [...]** Thanks, see you later."

Chuck hang up and returned to the living room, exchanging a quick look with his fiancée. Sarah frowned her eyebrows and Chuck mouthed 'later'. The little exchange didn't go unnoticed by Diana, who frowned her eyebrows, suspicious.

**.**

**MEANWHILE.. **

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR DIVISION, NEW YORK.**

Bryce was bored. Bryce hated being bored. He couldn't stay still for a minute : how could they expect him to stay in a building and do nothing ? Plus it was quiet, all federals were working seriously on their cases. Bryce was loud. Well, at least Neal was loud. The young blue eyed man had tried to call his girlfriend to spend some time with her but, apparently, the young woman was busy. He tried Mozzie but the older man said he had better things to do. He could've called Alex but it would've been : they hadn't talk in months and he didn't even know with the number she had gave him was a real one.

So Bryce went to lay on the couch of Peter's office, his fedora hat on his face. He must've fell asleep because thirty minutes later, he felt someone taping gently his arm. With his uninjured arm, Bryce took off his hat and cracked an eye open. In front of him was standing Ellie, a bag on her shoulder and an amused look on her face. Bryce sat back up, stretching a little and said:

"Hi!"

"Hello. Am I disturbing your naptime?" she joked.

Bryce chuckled, rubbing his eyes with his hand. He shook his head and replied:

"No, it's just painkillers. They're making me sleepy" He hid a yawn "Sorry, that was rude."

"It's fine, don't worry." Ellie said, putting her bag on the floor. "So, Chuck told me that you needed someone to check on your shoulder?"

"Right, yeah. If you don't mind."

Ellie smiled and shook her head. She asked:

"Could you please take off the sling, your tie and shirt?"

Bryce smirked and sent her a flirtatious look which made the older woman roll her eyes. Bryce untied his tie, undoned the buttons of his shirt before taking off the sling and shirt carefully. Ellie couldn't help but winced when she saw his shoulder : there was a few cuts covered with bandage and a huge purple-black bruise that go from his soulder to his elbow and she could see that the bone wasn't in its place. She took a small bottle, a syringe and a needle out of her bag before putting gloves on. Bryce was watching carefully and winced when he saw the brunette grimace. He saw in a joking a tone:

"What's up, doc? Why do you need the needle and syringe?

She sent him a small smile and bit her bottom lip when she took one of the bandages. Bryce stuffed his fist in his mouth, restraining a cry of pain. The bandage seemed to stick on the wound, which was pretty deep. Ellie winced and said:

"Sorry."

Bryce didn't say anything. Fortunately, the others wounds were just small cuts and she could take the bandages without any trouble. She cleaned the fresh wound before sticking the syringe into the small bottle and sucking the liquid. She slowly planted the needle of the syringe on top of his forearm and injected the liquid, trying her best to ignore the look of pain on Bryce's face. The young blue eyed man cleared his throat and asked:

"What's that for?"

"Whoever treated your injuries was either drunk or unskilled, all he did was shitty work. When you fell-"

"When I was tackled to the ground by your brother." He corriged.

"-Not only you dislocated your shoulder but you opened a old wound, apparently some stiches broke and your fall worsened your wound. The doctor just cleaned the wound, he should've stitch you up again. I anesthetized you so you won't feel a thing when I'll stitch you up."

"Ok and what about my shoulder?"

"I need to put the bone back in place, so it might hurt a little bit" she winced as she started sewing his wound. "Seriously the person who treated is a complete imbecile. He should've done all of this in the first place."

Bryce chuckled as she finished bandaging his forearm. Ellie put a hand behind his elbow and the other on his wrist. She looked up at him and asked:

"Ready?"

"Let's get this over with" He said, nodding.

Ellie nodded too, took a deep breath, then quickly and roughly slammed his shoulder back in place. Bryce stuffed his fist in his mouth, restraining a scream, as his eyes widened in pain. Ellie winced and started massaging soflty his arm and shoulder. Bryce let out a moan of pain as Ellie apologized:

"Sorry. How does it feels, now?"

"Better, thanks." Bryce replied, a small smile on his face.

Ellie smiled and let go of his arm before taking a ice pack out and a bottle of pills of her bag and threw it at the blue eyed man guy. Bryce caught the ice pack with his good hand and put it on his shoulder. Ellie raised from her seat, took off her gloves and closed her bag. She put it on her shoulder, handed him a prescriptionand said:

"Keep that ice on your shoulder for the next hour, it will help with the pain. Take those pills every three hours until 3:25 PM tomorrow and tonight, mass your shoulder with that baume before going to bed and sleep on your left side. Then you'll be as good as new, tomorrow.

"You are a miracle worker, Els. Thank you so much." He said, taking the prescription and stuffing in his back pocket.

"You're welcome."

As she was going to leave, Bryce yelled:

"Wait!"

She turned around and cocked an interrogatory eyebrow. Bryce raised from the couch, the ice pack pressed against his shoulder and asked:

"How can I repay you?"

"You don't have to, it was mostly me according my little brother a favor." Ellie said with a smile "But if I think of something, I'll let you."

Bryce smiled back at her and watched her leave the office. The ex-CIA agent sighed, put the ice on the desk and tried to put back his shirt on, without hurting his shoulder, and left the office, his tie hanging around his neck.

As he started walking toward his desk, Bryce felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He sat at his desk, frowning his eyebrows, took the phone out of his pocket and picked up:

"Yep?"

_"Hey, it's me: could yo- "_

"Yo, Chuckie: what's up?

_"Don't call me that._." Chuck hissed.

"Geez, Chuck, take a chill pill : I'm kidding! Eh, what are your sister's favourites flowers?"

_"Wait, what?"_ Bryce could almost 'hear' Chuck frown his eyebrows. **  
**

"What are your sister's favourites flowers?" Bryce repeated, as if he was talking to a kintergarden student "You know.. Ellie?"

_"How in hell am I suppose to know what are Ellie's favourites flowers?! I'm her brother, not her husband. What are they for anyway ?"_ Chuck asked, getting annoyed.

"I want to buy her flowers as a 'thank-you-for-putting-my-shoulder-back-in-place-y ou-are-awesome.' I think I'll even send a card with that little message written on it."

_"Whatever, could I ask a favor?" _the CIA agent asked.

"Sure, shoot!" Bryce said, putting his legs up on his desk and the ice pack back on his shoulder.

_"Ok: I want you to find anything you can about Alice Ellington and her relations with Duris"_

"Alice... Ellington" he muttered as he entered her name in the data base "Okay, I'm on it."

"_Thanks, see you later."_

"Later." Bryce said before hanging up. He threw his phone on his desk and began his researches, sending the name to Mozzie. Just in case.

...

* * *

A/N : I know : shitty chapter but I wanted to update before leaving for Ireland for two weeks, so... taa-daa !

Review...?

KadiCriss


	7. Thieves Care Too

**A/N :** Ouh-ouh : an update! Oh my god, thank you so much guys for your kind and awesome reviews, they warm my heart :) You guys are seriously the best, I never expected that kind of response when I posted the first chapter *** emotional moment *** I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF 4.130 OF YOU! I'm feeling much better now (because of my awesome friends and readers) and my best friend started reeducation last week so YAY! for that :D And guys, Ireland IS GORGEOUS. Seriously. I want to live there. Or in England. or in Scotland. Or New York. Haven't made my mind yet. Anyway, Ireland was awesome, I met some awesome guys, kinda sad to be back in old and boring Paris. Long story short : BEST TWO WEEKS EVER.

**LOOKING FOR A BETA, IF INTERESTED, LEAVE A REVIEW OR SEND ME A PM.**

Thanks to **IHeartNealLarkin**, **Pheobe Arocis**,** WolfLinkEpona**,** asdfmik**, **Only If**, **menelli**,**AlexisFlare**,**senselesswords****,KeJae**, **Lilywonders**, **Amitris, 21JumpStreetMcQuaids**, **adookable**, **Tempe4Booth** and **Guest** for following/favouriting/reviewing last chapter. I LOVE YOU :)

**GUEST: **Bryce is the only person (of the White Collar division) who know about the Intersecret. Thks for the review and enjoy your reading :P

**AlexisFlare: **Things are much better, now. Thks for the concern :) Thks for the review and here's your update !

**IHeartNealLarkin** : And you're awesome ;) Thks for the review, enjoy your reading!

**Only If :** Bryce never met Roark but he heard of him. And he knew that Roark was looking for him so we can't say he knows-knows him but he knows who he is. I hope I replied to your question. Anyway, thks so much for ur review and here's a new chapter :)

**KeJae:** Thks and I'm better ! As I said before, Ireland was awesome and my best friends are the bests. Thank you for ur lovely review.

**Linoria**: Thank you!

**Amitris:** Right **wink, wink** Thanks for the review and enjoy your reading :D

adookable : here's more :) Btw, love your penname.

**DISCLAIMER : I OWN NOTHING.**

* * *

**FBI HEADQUARTERS, WHITE COLLAR DIVISION, NEW YORK.**

**6:40 PM**

Bryce was sitting at his desk, talking on the phone with Mozzie, when both of the teams entered the federal building. Playing with a pen in one hand, Bryce raised his head and his blue eyes met Chuck's brown ones.  
Chuck shot him a interrogatory look as Bryce raised two fingers telling him to wait. The nerd gave him a short nod before turning back toward his teammates. Neal put his cellphone between his ear and his shoulder,gathered all the papers he printed into a file and said:

"Uh-uh... Ok, thanks, Moz'!"

He hid the file under some books and newspapers, raised from his chair and started walking toward his teammates, his hands stuffed in his pocket, asking:

"So, find anything?"

"The usual" Diana replied "How's your shoulder?

"Much better, thanks." he replied, his 'Caffrey' grin.

Diana smiled back at him. Bryce turned toward Chuck, who was looking at him, and gave him a short nod. As Diana, Jones and Peter resumed to their previous conversation and Sarah and Casey to, whatever they were doing before, Bryce walked toward his desk, discreetly followed by Chuck. The blue eyed man sat at his desk, took the hidden file and handed it to the CIA agent, saying:

"This is all I could find about Ellington and Duris, I didn't find anything that related them to Roark but..."

" 'but?' " Chuck asked , taking the file and cocking an eyebrow.

"They've been in the same highschool and they had friends in common" he finished before crossing his arms "That's all I got."

Chuck scanned quickly the file, took the stolen picture out of his pocket and put it between two pages. The young man raised his head, stuck the file under his armpit and said, grinning to the ex-conman:

"This is more than what I'd expected. Plus, I've something you don't."

"What?" Bryce asked, frowning his eyebrows.

Chuck tapped two fingers to his head, making Bryce mutter:

"Oooh, right."

The CIA agent smiled as he watched his ex-best friend putting his legs on his desk. Suddenly he heard the doors of the elevator open and saw a delivery guy step out of the elevator. The young man seemed nervous to be in a room filled with federal and governemental agents. He cleared his throat and asked, stuttering:

"D-delivery f-for Mr Neal C-Caffrey."

Chuck frowned as his eyebrows and turned back to Bryce as the young brunette jump from his chair and almost ran toward the delivery guy, saying:*

"That would be me. Thanks" he said, grinning at the young man as he took the box "Where should I sign?"

The delivery guy handed him a board and a pen. Bryce signed and gave him the board back, keeping his 'Caffrey' smile on his face. As the young man started walking back toward the elevator, Bryce stopped him:

"Eh!"

The delivery guy turned around and waited as Bryce took a twenty dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to him. The young man smiled as he took the generous tip and said:

"Thank you, sir."

" 'Welcome."

As he watched the young man leave, Bryce could feel all of the eyes on him. He turned toward his teammates, cocked an eyebrow and asked:

"What?"

"Generous much, Caffrey?" Diana said, crossing her arms..

Bryce rolled his eyes and as he opened his mouth to retort something, he was interrupted by Sarah yelling at her phone:

"What?!"

Everybody turned toward the blonde spy as she ran her fingers through her hair, frustated. Sarah sighed, put a hand on her hip and said to her interlocator:

"I never ordered two dozains of lillies nor did I ordered vanilla wine : I didn't even know that a hundred bottles of vanilla wine has a thing and I'm freaking allergic to lillies and- hello..? HELLO?! Urg, jerk!"

Sarah hang up and threw her cellphone on the nearest table. Chuck put his hand on the back of his fiancée's neck, massaging with his thumb and asked, worried:

"What's going on?"

"What's going on is that our wedding planner is a complete moron, that we're getting married in a few weeks and that we've got a billion things to do in a short delay and-"

Bryce kept listening to the young woman, both of his eyebrows raised. He'd seen her mad and that wasn't something pretty. But he didn't think that he'd ever seen Sarah so furious about something. Ever. And Bruce never thought that the cause of her fury would be weddings details. Her wedding.  
As the blonde spy continued her rambling, Bryce sat back in his chair, put the box on his desk and started tapping a pen on his table. Suddenly, an idea popped in the young criminal's mind. He stopped playing with his pen, put it on his ear and asked, turning his chair in Peter's direction:

"Has El been working on something lately?"

"Nothing big" Peter answered, frowning his eyebrows "Why?"

Bryce ignored the older man's question and turned toward Sarah, who had stopped her rambling:

"Elizabeth Burke, Peter's wife, is one of New York's best event planners, if not THE best" he explained." Maybe she could help you with the wedding organization."

" She would?" Sarah asked, her eyes sparkling with hope.

"Thanks but Ellie, my sister, is already on it." Chuck retorted.

"She wouldn't mind some help" Sarah protested, turning to Chuck, cocking an eyebrow.

The nerd sighed and ran a hand over his short hair. At the same time, he felt his cellphone buzz in his pocket. He took it out and groaned as he read the text received. Sarah asked, worried:

"What, now?"

"I just got a text from Ellie" he explained as he put his cellphone back in his pocket "We don't have any traiteur anymore."

As he watched Sarah's face became paler and paler, Bryce turned back to Peter and said:

"Without them, we wouldn't know anything about Duris or Parker. We kinda owe them, don't we?"

Peter thought about his CI proposition during a few minutes and although he didn't understand Bryce's attitude, Sarah looked like she was about to cry. And god, would that be awkward. Like, really awkward.  
As Bryce kept staring at his boss/partner/best friend, Peter sighed and said:

" I guess I could ask her."

"Really?" The blonde asked,grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Peter gave her a small smile, slightly amused by the woman's sudden excitement, and nodded. Sarah started jumping up and down, squealing and repeting:

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Bryce bent his head to hide his grin and pursed his lips to contain his laughter. He couldn't believe that he had heard the Sarah Walker squeal like a little girl. Bryce raised his head and saw that Chuck and Casey could barely contain their amusement caused by the blonde's unexpected behaviour.  
Sarah stopped jumping up and down, cleared her throat and pushed some curls behind her ear, still grinning like a crazy woman.

As the blonde woman and the federal agent started a conversation and the others started busying themselves, Bryce returned his attention to the box he has received earlier. He took a pair of scissors out of one of the desk's drawers and opened the box. The first thing that caught his attention was a purple paper foiled in the shape of a flower. He took the origami out of the package and made it turn between his fingers, looking for something unusual. He squinted his eyes and noticed small letters on the petals of the flower. Frowning his eyebrows, Bryce carefully unfoiled the paper and started reading the small message:

_'Hey B.,_  
_Find this in your place this morning. Care to explain how you screwed up? You, the weasel and I need to talk. Without feds. Your place. 8 PM. Don't be late._  
_Btw, missed u,_  
_A, xx.'_

Bryce couldn't help but smile as he finished reading the letter.

"Thieves do care" he muttered under his breath.

He foiled the paper and put it in his back pocket before taking a small note and a brown envelope out of the box. His eyes widened as he read the small note :

_'Don't you know how to stay dead? Well, you should for your girlfriend's sake. Drop the case.'_

Bryce's heart skipped a beat as he put the note back in the package, opened the envelope and took a photography out of it. The sight of the picture made the ex-conman swallow : it was a photography of Sara's house and you could distinctly see the young woman taking her clothes off by one of the window. Which meant that whoever took the picture, he/she must've been really close. And that wasn't the only disturbing thing; around his girlfriend's head had been drawn a red target and you could see a red light traveling her almost naked body  
The young man put the photo back in the envelope, feeling suddenly sick. A few seconds later, his sickness was replaced by rage. His eyes focused on the package, Bryce didn't notice the worried look Peter shot him and confused glances Sarah and Chuck exchange. Peter walked toward his CI, who was closing the small box with trembling hands, and cleared his throat. Bryce's head turned to Peter's direction and the young mave gave him a small smile. The federal agent frowned his eyebrows and asked:

"You okay, Neal?"

"Yeah, I'm pitchy. I just got a small headache" Bryce lied, smiling.

"Really?" Peter said, cocking an eyebrow "So your change of attitude doesn't have anything to do with the content of this box?"

Bryce snorted before putting the package under his feet and raising both of his hands:

"You got me."he said "What I found is a little... disturbing"

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever is in this box isn' t for me" Bryce sighed, lowering his hands "I'm kinda embarassed, actually."

"Why?" Diana asked, amused when she saw Bryce slightly blush.

"There are pictures of a girl I don't even know and let's just say that... she's barely wearing clothes on them."

Diana and Jones bursted out laughing at their collegue's obvious discomfort as Peter said:

"Oh... _OH!_"

"Yeah, you shouldn't see that." Bryce winced, nodding and rubbing the back of his neck "There also was a small note saying 'Hope you enjoy - Lexi' . I don't know anyone named Lexi so... must be a mistake."

"Yeah, it must be." Peter retorted.

Bryce nodded again and after a few seconds of awkward silence, he jumped out of his chair, took the package and said, sighing:

"I better go to the post office and see if they can send it to the right person."

"Sure. Oh, Neal!" Peter shouted as the ex-conman was about to leave.

"Yep?" he said, turning around.

"Elizabeth invited you over for dinner, tonight. You're in?

"What time?"

"8'o clock."

"Um... I think I'll be a little late. I wanted to drop by June's place to wish an happy birthday, but I guess I could come." Bryce replied, nodding.

"Great." Peter said "Keep me posted."

"Will do!" Bryce shouted as he walked toward the elevators.

*****FLASHBACK*****

_NEW YORK, 2009._

_Bryce and Mozzie were walking toward a abandoned warehouse, where they were supposed to met Bryce's second 'instructor'. As they stopped in front of a locked door, Bryce stuffed his hands in his pockets and asked, leaning against the wall as Mozzie tried to pick the lock:_

_"So, what is she like?"_

_The bald man snorted and replied:_

_"She's annoying, whiny, cocky and really bitchy sometimes : a real charmer. But" he smiled as he opened the locker. Mozzie turned to Bryce as he raised back up "she's good at what she does and Neal and her were pretty close. So we need her."_

_Mozzie grunted as he pushed the large and heavy door open. He turned to Bryce, wiped the sweat off his forehead and designed the opened warehouse with a hand, saying:_

_"After you."_

_Bryce hesitated then slowly entered the dark warehouse. In the middle of the room, he could see a small table, enlightened by a desk lamp, and a woman, sitting on the desk, who was foilding a piece of paper. When the paper took the shape of a small flower, she grinned, proud of herself. Without taking her eyes off of the origami, the young woman suddenly said:_

_"I don't bite, you know."_

_"I don't doubt that" Bryce said, smiling at her._

_"I do." Mozzie muttered._

_The young woman glared at him before jumping off of the table and walking toward the duo, the flower between her fingers, As she came closer, the sound of her heels echoing in the warehouse, Bryce became to see her better. The young woman had dark brown shoulder length hair with highlights, big brown eyes and was wearing a yellow sundress with a leather jacket and black boots. She looked kinda pretty. She eyed Bryce up and down and asked, cocking an eyebrow at Mozzie:_

_" 'this' is supposed to be the con of the century?"_

_The conman just shrugged as the brunette began to __cercle the young blue eyed man as if it was a pray. She put the flower behind her ear and said, facing Bryce:_

_"He does look like Neal."_

_"Understatement of the year." Mozzie scoffed._

_"Same height, almost same weight" she continued her examination, ignoring the older man. "Same messy brown hair, same baby face, same innocent yet hard blue eyes.."_

_The young brunette bit her bottom lip and cupped Bryce's face in her hands, capturing his lips in a passionate kiss. Mozzie rolled his eyes as Bryce kissed her back, a little surprised. The young woman pulled away, pursed her lips and said:_

_"And that's how the charm is broken."_

_She walked back toward the table and took a small notebook. As she walked back toward them, Mozzie crossed his arms and said:_

_"Bryce, meet Alexandra Hunter, professional thief, origami freak and one of Neal Caffrey's many conquetes."_

_" People usually just call me 'Alex'" the young woman rectified with a smirk "Original, right? Here" she added, giving the small origami "A welcome gift."_

_Bryce took the small lys, a smile on his face. Alex handed him her notebook, saying:_

_"Oh! This is all you need to know about Neal Caffrey. So you can throw whatever file your boss gave you 'cause they're wrong.. I mean, they're right, but wrong. You know what I mean?_

_"I... think so" Bryce said "So all I've got to do is learn everything in this?"_

_"Wouldn't that be nice?" Alex said sarcastically "But no."_

_"We have to help you become Neal Caffrey, the greatest conman of his generation." Mozzie said._

_"And for that, the first person to convince that you're Neal Caffrey, is you. And us, eventually" Alex added._

_"Ok. How do I do that?" Bryce asked._

_"You've got to start talking like him, walking like him, smiling like him. Long story short: you've got to be him." __Alex explained, leaning against her desk._

_"Oh, you also have to become the best conman of your generation" Mozzie added "No pressure."_

_"Yeah, no pressure." Bryce muttered in a sarcastic tone "And how many days do I have to become Neal Caffrey?"_

_"Two weeks." Alex and Mozzie replied at the same time._

_"Well" he sighed, clapping in his hands "Better get to work, then."_

*****BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY*****

**RIVERSIDE DRIVE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK.**

**7:13 PM**

Bryce entered the apartement, pushing the door with his foot, his package in his hands and his keys in his mouth. As he entered the place, the heads of Mozzie and a brunette turned toward him. Bryce threw the box and keys on the closest table, took off his fedora hat and asked, frowning his eyebrows:

"How did you two get in? I don't remember giving the double of the keys to Mozzie."

The older man simply pointed to the young woman, who smiled innocently at Bryce. The ex-CIA snorted and said, shaking his head:

"Why am I even asking? Hey, Alex" he added, wrapping an arm around the brunette's waist and kissing her on the cheek "Long time no seen"

Alex smiled at him as he sat in front of his two 'instructors'. Bryce crossed his arms and said:

"By the way, sending this to the white collar division wasn't your brightest idea."

"Yeah, didn't really think this through" she admitted, wincing"but, hey! You're here so it worked."

"Uh-uh. So, what were you doing before I came in?"

"Talking. Trying to found out who wrote this first note" Mozzie said, pointing to the photos and papers scattered on the table.

Bryce took the note and photos he received earlier out of the package and put them on the table. The ex-CIA agent tilted his head to the side, observing both notes. Without taking his eyes off of it, he asked:

"What did you find out?"

"Judging by the stains on the paper, whoever wrote the first note is lefthanded and this hand writing obviously belong to a woman. Last time I checked, Adler was righthanded and a man" Alex replied.

"Roark is lefthanded" Bryce retorted "He could've wrote it."

"I doubt Roark has the hand writing of a thirteen year old teenage girl." Mozzie countered.

Bryce sighed and ran his fingers through his short hair, saying:

"Judging by the writing, the second package was sent by a completely different person. Righthanded and male."

"Could be Adler" Alex suggested.

"Could be one of Roark's minions" Bryce retorted. "Ok, see the photographies?"

"What about them?"

"The first ones I received were cleary taken by an amateur: they're blurry, the photographer was shaking and those are probably from his/her cellphone. However, the ones I received today were perfect. Seriously."

"So, we know that the package you received today was probably from Adler or one of Roark's acolytes."

"Yep" Bryce nodded.

"But who sent the first one?" Alex asked, frowning her eyebrows.

Bryce shrugged and answered, still examinating the first note:

"No idea."

Alex let her head fall back and groaned, running her fingers through her hair. She straightened in her chair and said, pouting:

"I need wine."

"For that, I can help" Mozzie said, raising from his chair. "After you, milady."

Alex smirked, stood up and followed her fellow conman, leaving their apprentice alone.

Frowning his eyebrows in concentration, Bryce sighed and threw the note on the table, making his shoulder throb at the quick gesture. He winced at the pain as he massaged his arm. Bryce took out the meds and prescription Ellie gave him earlier and quickly read it as he put two pills in his mouth and swallowed them dry.  
Suddenly, something on the prescription caught his attention. Tilting his head to the side, Bryce took the note he received a week ago and put it beside his prescription. His eyes widened when he realized that the hand writing was exactly the same. Thinking fast, Bryce abruptly raised from his chair and took his cellphone out of his pocket, quickly dialing a number. At the third ring, he started muttering:

"Come on, come on, come on."

At the fifth ring, someone finally picked up:

"New York hotels hotline, how could I be of any assitance?"

Bryce cleared his throat and answered:

"Hi, I'm Sam Carlin and I wanted some informations about-"

Bryce knew that if he introduced himself as Neal Caffrey, he wouldn't get anything out of anyone.

"Good evening, sir. How can I help you?"

"I found a wallet in the street this morning near the Olive Garden and it doesn't belong to a New Yorker, so I was wondering if its owner was staying at one of your hotels"

"All right. Do you know the owner's name?"

"Yes. Eleanor Bartowski. Or Woodcomb. Better check both."

After a few seconds of silence, Bryce's interlocutor said:

"We do have someone registred under the name of Eleanor Woodcomb at the Manhattan at Times Square Hotel. I hope I was helpful."

"Oh, very. Thank you, have a good night."

" You too, sir"

Bryce hung up, put on his jacket, stuffing the note in his pockets, and yelled before leaving the apartement:

"I'm going out for a walk."

Bryce had the time to hear them shout back 'see ya' before closing the door behind him.

**MANHATTAN AT TIMES SQUARE HOTEL, NEW YORK.**

**7:30 PM.**

Bryce entered the lobby, trying to make his way through the crowd. He finally succeeded to reach the receptionist. He smiled at the young woman sitting behind the desk and asked:

"Good evening, I'm looking for my cousin Eleanor Woodcomb. Could I have her room number?"

The receptionist smiled back and, after typing quickly on her computer, replied:

"Mrs Woodcomb is staying in the room 213. First floor."

"Thank you very much." Bryce said, grinning at the young woman.

The ex-conman turned around and started walking toward the elevators, which one happened to open itself when he arrived in front of them. He quickly climbed in and pressed a button. The ride wasn't that long. Bryce got out of the elevators as the doors opened themselves again and started searching the room of the young woman. When the brunette arrived in front of the room 213, he let out a long breath and knocked softly on the door. He heard Ellie yell:

"What is it?"

Bryce cleared his throat and answered in a high-pitched voice:

"Hi, it's Mr Jenkin, from room 215. I was wondering if you got any flour."

The young man waited a few seconds before hearing Ellie shouting back:

"Give me a sec'!"

Bryce heard Ellie rushing to the door, opening all the locks and finally, she opened the door. Tje woman's smiled faded and she frowned her eyebrows when she saw Bryce standing in front of her, hands stuffed in his pockets and his blue eyes cold as ice. Ellie opened and closed her mouth, like a poisson out of the water. Not letting her the chance to speak, Bryce said:

"Hey, Ellie. We need to talk, mind if I come in?"

"Uh-"

"I didn't think so." Bryce interrupted her, letting himself in.

Ellie shut her mouth, shook her head and closed her door. The young woman turned toward the ex-CIA agent, crossed her arms and asked, not meeting his eyes:

"So, what are you doing here? And what's up with the fake name?"

"I have another question for you" He said, getting a foiled paper out of his pocket. He handed it to her and asked "Care to explain _what the hell_ is that?"

Still frowning her eyebrows, the brunette took the piece of paper and en-foiled it. As she read the small note, Ellie's skin became paler and paler. Watching the woman's reaction, Bryce smirked and said, sitting on a couch:

"So, do tell Ellie : when and how did you become a master of blackmailing and threatning?"

"Bryce, I-I can explain-" she began.

"I sure hope so" Bryce interrupted her again "Because if you can't, _this_" he added, pointing to the note "is ending on my superior's boss tomorrow. Threatening a federal agent?" He winced, shaking his head "Bad move, El."

"Do that and you'll blow your cover. We wouldn't want that, would we now?" Ellie said in a cold and harsh tone, which surprised Bryce. The young man glared at her "Now, shut up and let me explain myself." she finished, sitting next to him, the note crumpled between her hands.

Bryce's glare softened as he watched Ellie sigh and say:

"Two days after we arrived in New York, after your and Chuck's arrest, I got a call." She took a deep breath finally looked up at the young man, her brown eyes meeting Bryce's blue ones.

"From who?" Bryce asked, frowning his eyebrows."Roark?"

The brunette shook her head and answered:

"It was a woman. She's the one who told me - more, like, _ordered me_- to take the pictures and write this note. She wanted me to convince you and Chuck to drop the case and that if I didn't, she would reveal your true identity and bad things would happen. I'm sorry, Bryce, but I couldn't let one of you get hurt"

Seeing tears forming in the brunette's eyes as she finished telling her short story, Bryce took one of her hands in his and gave it a warm squeeze. She looked up to the ex-conman and shot him a sad smile. Bryce smiled back and said, joking:

"So you do care."

Ellie snorted, punched him playfully in the arm and sniffed, wiping some fallen tears on her cheeks with her free hand. Bryce chuckled, letting go of her hand. Ellie tilted her head to the side and asked, looking confused:

"How did you know it was me?"

Bryce cocked an eyebrow that clearly said_ 'bitch-please'_ and answered:

"I worked for CIA for years and I'm supposed to be the great conman of my generation: it wouldve been sad if I hadn't discovered it was you."

Ellie rolled her eyes but couldn't restrain a smile. Bryce grinned before frowning his eyebrows, thoughtful. Noticing his sudden change of attitude, Ellie asked:

"What is it?"

"Are you sure it was a woman?"

"Bryce, I'm not deaf : I know how to make the difference between a female voice and a male voice."

"Yeah, I know. It's just..."

"What?"

Bryce sighed, running his fingers through his messy brown hair:

"The more we progress in the case, the more we encounter new people working with Roark or Adler. People we know nothing about, people that can to us without being noticed. People who know **me**. " He turned to Ellie and continued, looking straight into her eyes "And frankly, it scares me."

* * *

**A/N 2**: **LOOKING FOR A BETA, IF INTERESTED, LEAVE A REVIEW OR SEND ME A PM.**

End of chapter 6. Yay? Nay? Tell me what you thought about it by leaving a review, folks.

Ok, since the beginning of this story, I've replied to your reviews in my author notes. From now , I'll reply to them by PM's..

So instead of long reviews replies, I'll answer personnal questions (favourite color, food, whatever you'd like to know) or randoms questions that you can ask in a review. I saw that in a fanfiction and I liked the concept, so.. I decided to do it too !

That's it for today, nerds!

Until next time, REVIEW !

KadiCriss.


End file.
